Got to separate "hunting" from "self-protection" from "running battles". Each has its own requirements for equipment.
Being old now, I don't think I'd be joining any running battles, instead I'd avoid those situations as best as I could.
Self protection for me has declined now to just protecting a distributed family. Since they will have to protect themselves where they are I do that by providing "stuff" and teaching and training.
Hurricane Katrina has taught us that widespread need due to disaster can bring out the guns fairly readily. A terrorist attack with the somewhat technically available EMP pulse weapons could give us a very widespread disaster of some considerable size that would be VERY slow to recover from.
Thinking about the large proliferation of semi-auto .223 rifles makes you ponder exactly what the other person has for a mindset.
I went to the Gander Mountain grand opening of their new "survival store" -- they had floor displays of 50 BMG and some smaller cans full of 7.62 Nato and 223 that was deemed "suitable for burial". The domestic guns industry is ready now to equip you for Armageddon or any of the lesser conflagrations you might imagine.
I personally am equipped for hunting and personal protection. Somebody spraying 20 round clips of .223 at me from close range is likely to win anyway whether they can actually shoot or not (unless I shoot my buckshot equipped pump shotgun first that is).
Folks, you got people buying battle plate kelvar outfits to go along with their M17a clones -- these are the ones who really intend to "win".
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Now, back to reloading.
You need primers and powder and bullets. You have the brass from what you bought initially (or like me you buy the brass miltary surplus just as cheap as you can get it).
Let me expand your thinking a bit about brass. Brass is what it is, and what it can become.
7.62 Nato is flexible brass. It is .308, 260 Rem, 7mm08, .243 Win each one naturally with just a trip through the sizing die. And, in a pinch it can become short-necked cast bullet versions of 8x57, 6.5x55, 7x57 etc. etc.
Having some brass around is a good thing as the price of brass the metal is headed for the moon over time. Buying some extra brass now when it is relatively cheap might be a good idea.
And here is the source that is the best $$$ right now for same year head stamp 7.62 SBS brass (This is Santa Barbra Systems brass, a division of General Dynamics, i.e. Spanish built brass under US contract).
The Lake City brass costs more and it is mixed head stamp from all years, but folks claim it is "better brass" than the SBS. Might be, but for cast bullet shooting I think the SBS will do fine.
If you want Lake City, go to GIbrass.com where you can get it a little cheaper along with your bulk powder and bullets.
Big-Brass.com
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Got my 500 pieces of Big Brass 7.62x51 SBS in today. It came in cleaned, tumbled and ready to deprime and resize all packed out neat & clean in a heavy plastic bag.
All of it was the same head stamp and it looked undamaged as far as rims tears and side dings go -- the brass was all fired in machine guns that were apparently in good shape with no chamber burs or "fluting" style damage. None of it was fired in a FAL, all appears to be SAW or M60 machine gun fired brass.
Machine guns are hard on brass since a MG can offer a "variable length chamber" according to which gun it was fired in and where that barrel and latch system sat in its overall wear life.
Expansion and OAL of fired brass varies a lot with 20-30% of the brass being expanded too far in web area diameter & head to shoulder length, so all this machine gun brass needs to be
completely resized (100% inserted until the shell holder FIRMLY seats on the die body). This crushes out all length variation and diameter variation back to spec and moves all the variation out so it is stated as neck length variation.
Then trim all the cases to length, then bevel inside of the mouth, then deburr the mouth of the primer pocket.
Once fired machine gun brass is cheap, but it MUST be completely reprocessed correctly or you will occasionally hit an over length case, one that simply got stretched a lot more than the rest of them did.
Remember, reprocessing moves the shoulder back on the stretched cases and all that extra length then moves up to the neck area, increasing that trim case length noticeably on any stretched cases.
Any cases that show up being REALLY a lot longer in the neck than the rest after full length sizing should be tossed out as there is actually a stretch mark down inside the case where the case wall actually yielded and thinned out to make up all that extra neck length.
Loss during processing is generally in the range of a percent or three -- and it is always smart to let brass sit for a day or three between any processing steps that compress or expand the brass -- brass will work hardens then it air anneals over several days of rest. Full flame anneal needs to be done about every 4-5 reloadings as neck cracks will begin to develop if this step is not done.
You must lubricate your brass before depriming/resizing is done. Cooking oil is fine for case lubing, just go very very lightly if you are bulk lubing by the drip and stir method.
A very very slightly oily feel is what you are after, not a full coating of oil.
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