I have a Hornady Pacific Durachrome carbide die set i bought used.One says expander-decap but my decap pin is in another die. Die 3 is the bullet seater/crimp. I tried to change the guts on the first 2 dies but they wont fit. What am I missing here? Im a newbie and have done lots of reading also grew up around reloading but I dont get it.

the one with the de-prime in it is the sizer die.
the other should be the case mouth expander die.

I guess my question is why does the die say expander-decap when the decap pin is in another die?

they most likely used the same die bodies for both dies.
but the machining was different for the internals, as well as the heat treat after the fact.
they might have also come with a partially drilled center so it would be easier to run the reamer into the body.

either way it was to differentiate from the seating die.
as they would have come into the shop as soft blanks all piled in a crate.

What Caliber? I assume it's a 3 die set for straight walled cases, die 1 is a sizer, die 2 is a decaper and expander, 3 is a seater use in that order.

In some cases 1 will be a sizer decaper 2 will be a expander.

The code word is USED. Some one has already swapped the guts around in your dies.
I swap guts around in my dies to put the decapper in the first die or I will take it out all together and knock out all the primers by hand. I like the decapper in the first die or the size no matte where the manufacturer puts it.
The #2 die often will have a larger thread in the top because it is made to have the larger expander stem threaded into it. They probably use the same blank for .45 ACP and .45 Colt rounds with the larger expanders.

quote:

Originally posted by Sparky Phil:
I have a Hornady Pacific Durachrome carbide die set i bought used.One says expander-decap but my decap pin is in another die. Die 3 is the bullet seater/crimp. I tried to change the guts on the first 2 dies but they wont fit. What am I missing here? Im a newbie and have done lots of reading also grew up around reloading but I dont get it.

They are 44spl and mag. There also is an extra bullet seater threaded piece. I guess thats for round or flat nose bullets? One is marked 78 and the other is 79.