CM9 Extractor is Hammered (Pictures) - Any One See This Before

[Bawanna]

That's a fine idea.

[b4uqzme]

The extractors self-clean. By putting it on my desk, I was hoping it would clean the whole thing....

Mrs b4 seems to have the same idea for our entire house.

[Bobshouse]

Mrs b4 seems to have the same idea for our entire house.

We have a deal at our house, its 50/50 for everything, including cleaning the house. She cleans the inside, my son cleans the outside and I dirty it back up. I know, I know, that's not 50/50 but if I didn't do my part they would miss out.

[CJB]

Let me say something about dropping the slide on a chambered round, and its supposed disastrous effect on the extractor.

This is a matter of hyperbolic lore.

Here's where it came from, and it does have some basis, but you decide. Back in the day, we had 1911's and Browning HP's, and probably some others, whose extractor ran through a hole, a tunnel if you will. The extractor was not spring steel, but rather springy for the short distance that it could move. On both of JMB's designs mentioned, the thinnest, and weakest, part of the extractor was at the cut made where the groove in the cartridge case was caught.

Herein is the basis for the lore. As designed, on a clean pistol, the extractor could run over cartridge rims all day along and suffer no harm. It was designed to do so. It has a nice angular nose which pushes the extractor sideways allowing it to ride over the cartridge. However, given a dirty 1911, or dirty early HP, if that tunnel was filled with crud, well... there was no place for the extractor to actually move into. Apply force at the thinnest weakest part, don't let it move sideways, and something has got to give. The extractor on those models, and others built similarly, can break. The breakage was exasperated by the careful fitting given to extractors by the AMU, on target built (bullseye) 1911's, where the cut in the extractor was often deepened, so that very weak recoil springs could be used with very weak loads. They wanted no interference from the extractor causing issues with chambering, so if needed, the cut was made deeper. This eliminated the extractor having to move sideways slightly just to chamber a cartridge. If anyone cares to do the research, its available in several (outdated) publications by the Armed Forces Press, and in some old American Riflemen magazines. Do some searching on articles by Hatcher.

FN redesigned the extractor on the HP to a pivoting one, and it eliminates the problem, as also does the various external extractor types seen on some 1911 derivative designs.

Kahr's "self cleaning" is about as self cleaning as any other external extractor, which means no gunk in the tunnel, and assurance of easy movement.

Keep in mind, every Remington 700 and similar rifles have extractors that ride over the rim of the cartridge as part of normal functioning. Keep in mind that many autoloading rifles do as well, such as the AR-15 and AR-10, etc. These show almost no failures in service.

This bit of lore, falls into the same category as "never dry fire" a weapon.

With all the warnings Ruger gives, falling just short of "Do not eat the firearm", they never once mention dropping the slide on a loading chamber as being harmful. Neither does Colt. Neither does Kahr. Neither does FN, Walther, or Browning.

Be willing to bet that extractor was deformed when new.

But, y'all can believe what you want.

[Alfonse]

CJB must be right. My desk still isn't clean.

[gb6491]

Interesting post cjb. I'm not totally on-board with with all you wrote, but will keep it in mind. However, I do now tend to agree with you that the extractor in question was deformed when new. I say this because after reading your post I decided to look at this from a system view vice just looking at the part. Doing that and given how the extractor sits in the slide (had to go take a closer look) I don't see how anything could come into contact with that trailing edge with enough force to cause any damage there.
Regards,
Greg

BTW, what I'm not on board with is that while, as you point out, many modern extractor systems have a built in tolerance to being snapped straight over a rim, I still believe it is not a good idea to get into the habit of dropping the slide of a controlled feed pistol on to a chambered round. I'd also point out there can be other things to consider: I.E. Springfield Armory advises not to manually load rounds into the chamber of their XD series of pistols and I'm guessing that this has to do with the LCI they use.
Anyway, thanks for the lesson Oh, almost forgot, I still believe steel can be damaged by brass.....But, y'all can believe what you want.

[gb6491]

CJB must be right. My desk still isn't clean.

LOL, I just posted along the same line.
Regards,
Greg

[CJB]

Desk cleaning is available..... But youd needa put up with my accent.

[Bills1873]

Could it have been that way from the factory?

Hmmmm?

[CJB]

Interesting post cjb. I'm not totally on-board with with all you wrote, but will keep it in mind. However, I do now tend to agree with you that the extractor in question was deformed when new. I say this because after reading your post I decided to look at this from a system view vice just looking at the part. Doing that and given how the extractor sits in the slide (had to go take a closer look) I don't see how anything could come into contact with that trailing edge with enough force to cause any damage there.
Regards,
Greg

BTW, what I'm not on board with is that while, as you point out, many modern extractor systems have a built in tolerance to being snapped straight over a rim, I still believe it is not a good idea to get into the habit of dropping the slide of a controlled feed pistol on to a chambered round. I'd also point out there can be other things to consider: I.E. Springfield Armory advises not to manually load rounds into the chamber of their XD series of pistols and I'm guessing that this has to do with the LCI they use.
Anyway, thanks for the lesson Oh, almost forgot, I still believe steel can be damaged by brass.....But, y'all can believe what you want.

Fair enuf!

Hey in a friendly way, have you ever wondered if all those controlled feeding cycles are actually that, or have some of them, in cases where the bullet has jumped forward a bit from the magazine... being pushed in by the extractor instead of the boltface? Food for pondering.