Gotta love progressive presses

[JNunez23]

6 years ago I bought myself my first reloading press. It was a Dillon XL 650.

I've never looked back since.

Watching people reload on a single stage press is just painful to watch nowadays.

myke

Agree!

[jimboone]

I started out with a 550b and it was a great experience. Learned each station slowly so I understood what was going on and then went to the next until I was loading complete cartridges. Loaded for about a year and got a casefeeder and it got even better and faster.

Anyway, I think the 550b is a great way to start out and once you learn the ropes you still have a pretty good press that will get you lots of rounds an hour. While you are learning you can go slow as necessary to master the craft.

[CalTeacher]

That last line is perfect. Everyone is different. And that is why I get frustrated at the canned response. Its like people say "go single stage first" to feel like they contributed to the conversation or to get their post count up. I am not some special talent...far from it, but I did take the time to read countless tips and tricks and like I said watch the videos from Cowboy T. Then a little trial and error and I was set. Does that mean my wife could figure it out...probably not. But who knows. I am not saying that everyone should start with progressive. Far from it...hell most people I know shouldn't even be around flammables. My point is this...when someone is asking for advice after only providing basic info, ask follow up questions to determine their aptitude. Learn who they are, and what they may be able to accomplish. Then make a reccomendation. If you don't have the time to ask those questions or analyze the answers then don't bother contributing to the thread.
I will now step off the soap box.

With all due respect, we are just offering advice to new reloaders based on many years of experience. It is true that everyone is different, and some are more mechanically inclined than others. I will say, however that it is always best to learn a craft with a high degree of personal injury risk slowly. Quality before quantity. But that is just my opinion. There's a reason why pilots don't train in an F15 without ever having stepped into a cockpit, or why you don't teach a teenager to drive with a race car. Stupid mistakes made at 30mph are much easier to correct and learn from than mistakes at 200mph; they're also easier to see at a slower speed. Again, YMMV.
Also, this is the Internet. No matter how many questions we ask we won't really know a persons abilities until we sit with them at a reloading bench.