Controlled vs. Push Feed

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I am of the opinion that the claw extractor will last longer than a push feed but only if you feed cartridges from the magazine. If you drop a round in front of the claw and expect it to bend over a cartridge rim, it will fatique fracture at some point in time. You can look at this M98 extractor and see that it has to bend out to snap over a cartridge rim. I did have a M1903 extractor break after dropping a round in the chamber and closing the bolt. It was an old extractor, I think it broke at the bolt face, but it has been over 30 years and my memory is not clear on this point. Since then, I feed everything, be it push feed or controlled feed, from the magazine. Its a good habit to get into.



The push feed extractors have to snap over the cartridge rim and are thus exposed to more wear. Of the push feed types used in NRA highpower, the Rem 700 wore out sooner and was more difficult to replace than the M70 push feed extractor. The M70 push feed extractor was very easy to replace, you pushed in a spring loaded indent and slide the extractor off the bolt face. Finding the correct extractor was a trick, that I don't remember the different types, but there were a number of different extractor blades and you had to find the correct one or the extracted round would not clear the magazine port.
 
Gentlemen, this thread is excellent. I believe I learned a few things. Thank you to those of you who chose to spend the time to thoughtfully and carefully reply to this discussion.
 
From that American Hunter article, "The max deviation of the sample was .0195,” which, though within SAAMI specs, is still a large deviation when it comes to such a delicate area. To further demonstrate the practical problem, D’Arcy grabbed the bolt from a .300 Weatherby and placed each round under the extractor. The rounds at the smaller end of the spectrum weren’t secured by any extractor tension, and simply fell to the floor—so much for “controlled round feeding.”

If memory serves, the Weatherby Mk V and Vanguard are push feed actions unless the rifle in question is an early Weatherby from the late 1940's to some time in the IIRC 1960's when Weatherby used FN Mauser actions to build his rifles. Sorry, I don't remember the exact years but I'd guess 1948 to about 1965.. :( I have several Mausers from FN to Oberndorf a several others in between and I have NEVER seen the problems that author brought forth.
Now I like the Mauser action a lot and have had pre-64 Winchesters and even They all work just fine and have been trouble free ever since I bought them. have a New Haven Pre-64 style Stainless Classc M70 in .338 Win. Mag.
With that said, the only push feed rfle that ever gave me any trouble was a Remington M660 in .308. The extractor turned toes up probably due to many rounds run through the gun. I bought it in 1973 and IIRC, the exractor quit around 1989, give or take a year. Another was on a tang safter Ruger M77 but it looks like some idiot did a polish job to make it smoother or something. I replaced it with a Mauser extractor I had laying around as all was well.
Paul B.
 
If memory serves, the Weatherby Mk V and Vanguard are push feed actions
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My Weatherby Mark V made in the mid 90's is indeed a push feed. You can hold it in any position you want including upside down and work the bolt as slowly as you can and a round wont fall out because the feed lips hold the cartridge until the bolt has closed far enough to prevent it from falling out.
 
'Twould be interesting to find out why all the external extractors for control round feed rifles were bought. That includes all those broken by some cause as well as those replaced for a larger size case head along with its bolt face enlarged.

I asked the man, who professionally was a field rep for Remington, why he used his pre-64 Win. 70 to win the NRA National High Power Championship. He said it was extractor and feed reliability as well as the receiver being near 3 times as stiff and didn't twist out of perfect epoxy bedding that plagued his own company's rifles.
 
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