Anyone who carries a handgun should practice regularly, reloading makes that possible. Go to every single tire shop and car dealership you can find, and see if you can get their wheel weights monthly. If a doctors office closes down, you can get a couple hundred pounds of lead out of the xray room walls. If you really want to save money, cast your own. Also, sweep up all of your range brass, even other calibers, other reloaders will trade 9mm for .40s for instance. I've gotten several hundred casings this way. You can learn a lot from the ammosmith.com forums as well. I have been collecting my brass and lead since last year when I started collecting my reloading tools one by one, and have just started making my own bullets. I have 75 pounds of lead, and around 2200 casings, so all I have to buy right now, is primers and powder. 25$ fora pound of powder, in .40 it will make about 1,000 rounds. a pound of lead will get you about 30 bullets. The other day, I got 20$ for my B-day, and bought 400 primers, since I had the rest of the stuff already, I wound up with 400 rounds and McDonalds on that 20 bucks.
Get a turret press, no (progressives for beginners) I have a Lyman and its awesome. Holds 6 dies., or 5 with the powder measure. Buy the kit, it comes with the press, a trimmer, a scale, the powder measure a book, and a few odds and ends. It saves so much money this way. The scale is a jo0ke, get a beam scale. You will need a melting pot, the Lee 10 lb bottom pour works well. You will need a bullet mold, I got a Lyman, I love it. You must get a bullet puller, looks like a hammer, its about 20$. A small hammer to help with the mold, an oil bottle with a needle, to oil the press. A digital caliper. Safety glasses. Your dies, and a sizing die for the cast bullets. Oh yeah, figure out if you want to pan lube, or tumble lube. It is an investment, but it will pay you back really fast. You don't have to buy the most elaborite or most expensive tools, but buy the best that you can afford. There are cheaper ways to get into this, but you get what you pay for. See it through, you will be glad you did, saving a fortune, and in the end, making a far superior product than the store bought "generic" rounds. I still carry the PDX-1 Winchester store bought rounds, they hold together on impact better than the hornadys for instance, but for target practice lead is the way to go. There is a learning curve, I'm no expert, but its fun to learn, and I've been very happy with the results.
