If you are reloading for pistol, you need a progressive press.
A single stage press will suck the life out of you when loading high volume.

A new Dillon 550b with one caliber will cost about $550.
DILLON

You will have to buy caliber conversion kits (plates + powder funnels) and
dies for each additional caliber.  I would concentrate first on your highest volume
calibers.  You can determine the cost of switching calibers from the Dillon website.

After the press and dies, you will need powder + brass + bullets + primers.

I would call B.S. on previous posts regarding high volume loading for pistols/revolvers.
You will be spending several hundred dollars to get started.

That being said, I have loaded many hundreds of thousands of pistol rounds and have saved untold thousands of $.
None of the firearms I have purchased in the last 15 years have seen a single round of factory ammunition.

For all the shooting, I don't know why I'm not a better shot.

Yup, too hard to sort.

Check in the Reloading technical forum.  I am in the process of getting set up to reload pistol, mostly .45, .38 and .357.  I would hesitate to say you'd be completely set up at $350, but you'd be fairly close.  That said, from the standpoint of someone starting out, if your only interest in reloading is for cheap ammo then I'd recommend passing.  I'm doing it because I find the process interesting in its own right.  

Pistol powder is almost impossible to find right now, and when it's available it's usually at a premium.  When you see people talking about reloading at big cost savings, you realize you need to be able to purchase components in bulk when they are available on sale or at cheap prices.  Also be aware any primers or powder ordered online will cost about $24 extra in hazmat fees.   Doesn't matter if you buy one pound of powder or 50 lbs of powder and 10,000 primers, you still pay the same hazmat.  

I'm not trying to be discouraging, just wanted to point out some of the realities I've come across as I've been picking up equipment and components.  Pick up a copy of ABC's of Reloading and give it a read.  It will give you a good idea of what you need.

 
+1 on reading the reloading forum.


Don't post a thread right away, I have read enough of them to tell you what you are going to hear.


1 - read the stickies. The info is definitely in there, but it might seem like too much to digest at first. Watch a couple youtube videos to help you along and to see things in action.


2 - buy the ABCs of reloading. It's a very good book that will help you learn what you are doing.


3 - buy a reloading manual and read the front section. They also have a how-to guide in the front. Lyman and Hornady are highly recommended. I like Nosler myself, but they aren't much on pistol ammo.


If you are serious about it (and I highly recommend reloading. It saves money and you can get more accurate ammo from all of your guns at the same time.) Buy a single stage or turret press with all of the trimmings and get to it. Once you get going and run into problems check out the reloading forum again. Go back a few pages. There are many threads on the same problems.


In fact, if you go back through the threads I'm sure you will find a few threads wondering the same thing you are.

A patch soaked in turpentine works wonders.  I don't know why it works, but the lead just sticks to it.  I had an old school cast bullet guy tell me this, and I didn't believe it until I tried it.  

Not sure if mentioned yet but another key here is most factory lead loads use a swaged bullet much softer than a typical cast bullet. I shoot at ranges that will only allow plain lead unjacketed bullets. I have shot hundreds of thousands of lead bullet
Loads and the only time I had leading issues ( to even include shooting lead out of glocks) is with factory swaged lead bullets
Cast ( standard off the shelf ) has never been an issue in dozens of pistols.

Yes, for sure.  IF you haven't reloaded before, get it down and figgered out on a simple O-frame press FIRST.  If you haven't had any pilot training, you don't want to be handed a late model fighter plane to solo in.

Ding Ding Ding -- we have a winner. I have found this to be very true . Lead bullets will slide on steel but will drag and rip themselves up
on the slightest trace of copper fouling .

Other possible causes--
Poor match of bullet to bore size (as mentioned by others)
Some bores are a bit rough-I believe this encourages copper fouling (see above)

When cleaning with the choir boy you are mechanically scraping the lead out , the last thing you want to do is lube it up with solvent , go at it dry

I have had a gun or two that just didn't like lead bullets , I always blamed it on a rough bore . Most any other gun if cleaned very well first would work pretty good with lead