I got into Re-loading 2 years ago, Basically dredged all my dad's stuff out of his attic and set it up. Had to do a bit of reading before i got comfortable getting started, and i take a really tame aproach to reloading, I'm not out to reinvent the wheel, I've found and was going to look at the name last night but i forgot, a pamphlet that is compiled with most of the common bullets on the market for a specific caliber (mine 30-06) ( got it at shooters supply in yakima B4 the closed), and several differtent powders, I figure out what bullet/ weight i want to use, look in the book, they give you several different powders for that bullet, they tell you all the stats' and they mark one of them as the most accurate load, thats what I've been basing my reloading on, I'm very carefull with my powder, I measure every load. I do agree every rifle shoots differently, you can have 2 identical rifles and get different results for one specific load. so off to the range you go.
On the otherhand if you really want to make a hobbie out of it, you can get a cronograph and really do allot of shooting to figure out your own mix.
Me, i have my stuff set up at a desk specifically for reloading, if i get up one saturday morning and theres a blizzard out side, I can kill a pot of coffe and maybe reload a box of shells, it is fairly relaxing.