Comments

1. On February 23, 2021 at 9:41 pm, The Wretched Dog said:

   Herschel: I would think a metals engineer’s opinion would be more useful?

   That said, the extractor claw is designed to ‘enclose’ the cartridge rim as it is pushed up from the magazine, rather than “ride over the rim”, so I would default to the design intent and not slam the extractor claw over the rim of a chambered cartridge. (Granted, the external extractor will have more give than the original internal design, but still.)

   TWD

2. On February 23, 2021 at 10:04 pm, GomeznSA said:

   I have a gunsmithing degree and also been to a couple of armorer’s courses. Here is my best ‘guess’ – since the extractor is made of steel and is impacting on a softer metal (brass) it ‘should’ not have any ill effect to the extractor. OTOH, repeating that mechanical action multiple times WILL likely wear it out faster than if it is operated as designed. YMMV of course.
   FWIW I do have some experience with a soviet bloc ,22 target pistol which is over engineered and built like a tank – except for the extractor. That is made out of cheap steel – replacements are hard to find but some machinists have managed to build them out of old files and then case hardened. AFAIK that has solved the breakage problem. (if anyone has one of those I could use it)

3. On February 23, 2021 at 10:34 pm, Herschel Smith said:

   Good points all.

   As for the practice of riding the extractor against a chambered round, all manufacturers I’m aware of recommend loading cartridges from the magazine.

4. On February 23, 2021 at 10:41 pm, George said:

   Jerry Miculek says don’t do it. My gunsmith/1911 guru says don’t do it. So, I will defer to superior experience and knowledge and refuse to do it.

5. On February 24, 2021 at 11:10 am, Sisu said:

   @Herschel, Didn’t you have a similar post circa last 12 – 18 months ? (I looked down “TCJ By Type” – nothing caught my eye.) … I believe the post was here. If so there were as I recall a range of good comments including what the “Smyths” discussed about “internal” vs “external” extractors. …

6. On February 24, 2021 at 1:28 pm, Bill Sullivan said:

   I have a stock Colt commercial 1911. I have been dropping rounds in the chamber and letting the extractor snap over the rim on this pistol, and another one that I still have, since about 1970. No problems or broken parts so far, and I have run a trainload of ammo through them. At what point is the extractor supposed to break?

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