Hornady/Pacfic Durachrome dies - Help!

[dmftoy1]

I just bought a set of used dies off of ebay. They appear to be in great shape but they're a bit different than what I'm used to. They appear to have a die that's made for decapping/expanding, a separate die for resizing (carbide) and a dies for bullet seating/crimping. I'm guessing that with their set you do the following:

1. Resize the case
2. Toss it in the tumbler
3. Decap/Expand -in one step (Prime by whatever mechanism you normally use)
4. Powder Charge
5. Seat/Crimp

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but I've always had my decap assembly built into the sizing die so I'm just trying to make sure I've got it figured out. (couldn't find anything hornady's website or via a google search)

Have a good one,
Dave

 

[griz]

I don't know if the dies would be usable on a progressive but for single stage that would work. Are they old dies? I thought the size/decap combination was pretty much standard.

 

[Sam Adams]

They appear to have a die that's made for decapping/expanding, a separate die for resizing (carbide) and a dies for bullet seating/crimping.

Are you sure that the "decapping/expanding" die isn't just an expander (i.e. to bell the mouth of the case prior to loading bullets)?

Anyway, the process should be (assuming that the dies are as you've indicated):

1) Clean/polish cases in the tumbler
2) Re-size
3) De-cap/expand
4) Prime
5) Charge with powder
6) Seat bullets & crimp

It is critical, even with carbide re-sizing dies, to put clean cases into your dies. Nothing lasts forever, even carbide, but the practical life of carbide dies will exceed yours if you care for them properly. Believe it or not, cleaning and/or lubricating the carbide re-sizer will also extend its life and make re-sizing easier.

 

[Jim Watson]

Those are pretty old dies; the decapping pin on the expander plug was once fairly common - I have a couple sets of RCBS like that. Probably made soon after Hornady took over Pacific and before they started messing with the design and dropped the Pacific brand name.

Use them as you describe for single stage or turret operation. If you have a progressive, you will have to round up a decapping stem for the sizing die, because expanding is done under the powder measure of a Dillon. The sizing die is inside threaded at the top, isn't it?

 

[dmftoy1]

Yup, the say "Pacific, a Hornady division" on the plastic box they came in.

The sizing die has no threads. (that's what threw me). The die that takes the decapping pin also has threads on the end and the expander fits on over the top of the decapping pin so it decaps and expands at the same time.


Thanks for all the advice guys. All the dies I had ever owned before had sizing/decapping as one die and expanding separate. That's what threw me.

Have a good one,
Dave