OP, I'll be the first to tell you that you just decreased the resale value of that gun in half. It is your private property to do as you wish, but dang, I hate to see that.
I understand the sentiment, but turning a $150 rifle into a $100 rifle isn't a big deal to me.
In some markets, it would actually increase the value - since most buyers in some parts of the country use them as hunting rifles, and don't want the side-folding bayonet weighing the rifle down, rattling, and snagging on everything.
Personally.... I bought an M38, to avoid the bayonet.
In most markets they're more desirable (and more expensive) than the M44s, but I picked mine up for "M44 money."
Because the M38 was in an M44 stock, the shop owner thought someone had hacked the bayonet off. Even as a gun dealer, the silly man didn't know the M38s existed.
ninjaamt, I'd help you out with the extractor question, but....
I don't remember how it works, and my M38 is in the far corner, at the very back of an extremely over-crowded safe.
I
believe it's a push-feed action, with a snap-over extractor. I just don't remember for certain.