Excellent topic for a new thread!
The best way is to have somebody show you. If you don't know anybody, you can offer somebody at the range $40 to show you.
Having said that, there are books, of varying quality. One all time favorite, and well worth the money, is the
Lyman Cast Bullet Loading Manual - 3rd Edition. It may be old, but it is the single most educational book about ALL aspects of reloading. You may not be interested in casting, or even in shooting cast bullets, but you do need to understand the mechanics of bullet behavior, and the Lyman manual is the best introduction.
Most folks start out with a single stage press. I think it's a good idea. It's best to start with a basic model that you will be able to put to good use alongside a "pro" type press. Everybody has at least two presses, and having one Tacoma and one Mack truck is better than two Mack trucks.
I recommend the
Lee Classic Turret. It's a good strong press, and more than enough for loading straight walled pistol cartridges. You will also need a set of
45 acp Carbide Dies. Buying quality dies like the RCBS or Redding will save you from ever buying another set.
Most seating dies also do crimping, and can be adjusted so that they crimp simultaneously with seating. DO NOT seat and crimp in one step, it is a surefire way to screw up learning how to reload! Run the seater plug all the way down and then adjust for correct seating, then remove the plug and adjust the die body to crimp. You can also buy a dedicated taper crimp die.
The belling/expanding die should be adjusted to only open the mouth of the case just enough to allow starting the bullet in straight. Over-belling is not a big deal, but it will cause premature case mouth cracking. 45 ACP brass can be reloaded 10-20 times.
You will also need:
There are plenty of little nickle and dime things to spend the rest of your money on too!
When you're all done, you should be able to load 45ACP for 15 cents or so. X-Treme plated bullets are practically indistinguishable from FMJ's in 45 ACP, and they are cheap.
I'll add stuff to this post as I think of things. There are other reloaders here who will have their own recommendations and ideas. It's all good. It's a huge topic. It will be hard to learn without someone to show you.
On the good side, most accidents that you make loading 45 ACP are not likely to result in any damage to you or the gun, because even an overload with Bullseye is not going to cause a kaboom unless you really are not paying attention (People who talk about a double charge with Bullseye are talking about roughly a 7 grain charge - 7 grains will wake you up, but it won't damage anything). I recommend Bullseye as your first powder. It's economical and it is a performer with the 45. 5.5 grains of Bullseye is a solid factory load.
