1911 extracctor question

J

Joe Portale

New member
Picked up an old book entitled "Custome Touches for the 1911 Pistol". One thing that indicates this is an older text is it shows the "correct" method for disabling the beavertail. Could you see the faces on a lawyer these days regarding disabling a safety on a handgun.

Anyway, the book recommends grinding off the center lumps on the extractor. Then beating it into the correct tension bow with a hammer. My question is, what would the advantage of this be? The lumps are there to maintain the spring of the extractor. Since, most extractors are cast. Even when made from "spring steel", cast metals are not very springy on there own.

Is this just one of those ideas that came and went. Or are there still folks doing this as part of a customizing job?

I don't agree with grinding away the lumps. I was just curious on the why.

Thanks
 
I don't know what the advantage was supposed to be, but it used to be a common procedure and is shown in Hallock's book, too.
 
Grinding off the humps is something I never agreed with either but it's supposed to increase the tension of the extractor by allowing the "natural" spring of the bow to bow in a little farther.

If I remember the book, in the chapter on disabling the grip safety. It was either titled or the first paragraph began with "Prepare to shoot yourself in the foot". George
 
I'm familiar with the book you refer to and was not amused by anything I found in it, including pinning the grip safety. As for grinding the lumps off the extractor, someone was not paying much attention to reality. If the extractor could somehow be anchored absolutely rigidly, there might be something to consider in the method. Real world, the extractor cannot be anchored this way without welding it into the gun. Then, of course, you couldn't adjust it very easily. A second point is that the extractor's resting position is a big factor in proper adjustment and would be made more difficult without the lumps that help to keep it in place and control the arc of movement.
 
Joe, most extractors today may be cast, or made by MIM, but they should NOT be. They should be machined from high quality forged spring steel, which they were in the old guns. Of course, that costs real money and most people would rather buy cheap junk than expensive quality and hope there is no problem.

The humps are designed to keep the extractor in the right place relative to the cartridge. Adjustment at the factory, if needed, should be done by trimming the hump.

Jim
 
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