Thanks guys. I just purchased my first AR-10 and in order to afford to feed the beast I decided I needed to look into reloading.
I found starting with straight wall revolver cartridges a lot easier. I don't yet reload .308, even though it was in the plan. There seems to be a lot more to consider there, and more equipment needed. A case trimmer, possibly a case gauge plus calipers. And then do you use small base dies, regular dies, RCBS x-dies, etc?
The main differences with bottleneck and straight wall are in trimming and lubing. You generally don't need to trim straight wall casings, while bottleneck brass needs to be trimmed after first firing, and again after a few firings. Bottlenecks through semi-autos require trimming more frequently, bolt actions, less to not at all.
Lubing is also the critical resizing change. With straight wall casings, you can generally get away with using a carbide die, and no lube. You HAVE to lube bottleneck casings every time you resize them. This can be shell by shell, or with an aerosol, ot throw them in a bag with lube and shake it up. Everyone has their way of doing it. It's a pain, and unless you do it, you will get stuck casings when you resize.
And yes, these extra steps can make you seriously consider the time investment in reloading bottleneck brass.