Dan, two of the biggest drawbacks to the Swaging hobby is the cost of the equipment and the time it takes between ordering what you want and when it's ready for shipment. Two others are the availability of bullet jackets and lead. These 4 items are probably not well discuss in your readings. First, the cost: I've noticed that one can usually resell their unwanted swaging equipment for not much less than what it costs new. Unfortunately, not too much can be done about the waiting period for new equipment. Sometimes, thou, you can purchase used stuff on the auction sites, or from folks on forums like this one, but not for much as a discount (see first comment). Presses and dies for .224s and .308s are (relatively)very common thou. For bullet jackets, you won't have any problem at all getting jackets up to .32 caliber, and there's a new producer in the field that makes them to order from .33 to .50 caliber. As a note, you may have to get a jacket trim set, or saw, to make the specific length you want in the .22-32 size, as selections here are very minimal. The last item, getting your lead cores, is very simple if you are willing to pay $2 a pound plus shipping for lead wire. Many of us just cast cores, but you indicated you wanted to avoid that. A few of us have the hydraulic equipment to make our own wire, but even that requires smelting scrap lead to make the swaging billets, but even then it's a little difficult finding a supply of "pure" lead. We persevere simply because 'home made' wire costs about 1/10th as much as 'store bought' and you'll find that you can go thru lots of it in one evening, especially if you are making .44 or .45 pistol bullets! A final comment about the Federal law about making (manufacturing ) bullets: anyone can make them for their own use without a licence, but selling them requires one. Too, you have to check with your State and local authorities about what they require licence-wise.
