[Jeff Higgins]

Go to your local gun store and buy every reloading manual they have. Speer, Lyman, Sierra, Nosler, Hodgen, and anything else they have. If you are only getting one, get the Speer. Read the chapters on reloading techniques and principles. Become absolutely familiar with the mechanics of, and the reasons for, each and every step.

I would suggest shelving the progressive press and getting a good single stage press and attendant dies on which to learn. The progressive does much of it for you, often lulling even experienced hands into a false sense of security. It seems too easy, and attention to detail suffers when each step is not "hands on". I would only break out the progressive equipment when you have become intimately familiar with all of the operations required to reload metallic cartridges. A progressive press is not a beginning reloader's tool.