Excellent list, Jon. Some profound truths there.
I don't have a basement, nor any other room suitable for reloading, in my house. But, when I first started I had my old Texan single-stage mounted on a desk in my office, and would reload there. Well, those were the days of shag carpet being popular. Know where this is headed? When the inevitable shot charge spill occurred those 461 little lead balls just disappeared into that deep pile carpet. Or so I thought. Next time wife ran the big Electrolux over my office she thought she was at the center of the Apocalypse. I soon had to hunt for a better place, and turned an outbuilding into my shop and reloading headquarters. There's been much more marital harmony in the house since, and the vacuums work smoother, too.
I would add this one.
#23 - Never start out shotshell reloading with a .410. You need to successfully load some shot shells so that you have begun to accumulate all the thousands of dollars worth of paraphernalia and junk that inevitably gathers in the loading shed, before buying a .410 loader. If you don't, you won't have enough skin in the game and you will throw the .410 in the dumpster and start preaching how shooters who reload are just fooling theirselves into believing there is a real savings.
SRH
