I'll join in with Kirk and M1911 - I jumped in with both feet and bought a Dillon 650 w/casefeeder for reloading several calibers - 9mm, .380, .40 S&W, .45 and now .357Sig. I didn't want to buy something twice - spend it once on quality and the best you can afford. I work two jobs, am on a Board of Directors for a state-wide organization, and am returning to college (glutton for punishment). I simply don't have the time to fool around with a single-stage press. Quality in quantity is what I was looking for, and found it with the 650.
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It does make more sence like you said earlier to buy the 45 and not have to buy a third gun. - CrustyFN
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OK, time to take you to the woodshed for a talking to. Crusty! You can NEVER have too many toys!!! What were you thinking, man??
The learning curve was not as steep as the semi-heeded warnings of TFL handloaders was advertised; following the Dillon video as a visual roadmap, and following the setup manual religiously (Xerox'd the entire manual and marked off each step on the copies so I didn't miss one) got me started in one evening. I had one minor (nah, major - after about a dozen misfeeds) irritation with the casefeeder tube jamming, but after assessing the mechanics of it, a screw that should have been pretensioned at the factory needed to be tightened up; after that, worked flawlessly.
Reading the reloading manuals is mandatory, however. Break out the reading glasses, grab a Coke, and head for a quiet spot in the house. Soak up what's in there. It'll save alot of time and lessen the possibility of injuring yourself.
The amount of pistol ammo that I'm going through just in this first year of competition shooting would have taken me broke if I bought commercial ammo. I also figure it'll pay for itself in the first 18 months or less - and with Dillon's No-BS Lifetime Warranty, I have no qualms with keeping it around forever. Not to mention the neat feeling of seeing fairly tight groupings and a good IDPA power factor result within the first couple of test loads...have fun!