Raymond759

I've obtained some internal extractors for my older Hi-Power, and I'm familiar with how to tune them for a 1911 pistol. Other than the bend to put pressure on the case rim, and breaking the sharp edges on the lower end of the extractor so the case should not catch on a sharp edge, what else is needed to properly tune one?

Thank you in advance!

Ray

Raymond759

Any thoughts?

Raymond759

Just in case anyone is in a similar situation, I've finally gotten around to firing this at the range. The reason for the replacement extractor is that a previous owner apparently took too much off the bottom of the extractor hook and the final round of the magazine would stove pipe rather than extract consistently.

I tuned this extractor to have a little more pressure on the case rim than I might in a 1911. (The geometry of the extractor is a bit different than a 1911.) Simply breaking any sharp edges on the lower portion of the hook and just rearward of the hook was sufficient -- 2 or 3 short passes with a fine file did the trick for me. No failures of any kind!

Please NOTE: I am not an expert on this "old-school" Hi-power, so please take this as my experience, not as "gospel". If anyone else has any input on this procedure, I'd be glad to hear it!

Thank you for your attention,

Ray

danf_fl

Sounds like things worked out. Congrats!

Alabaster

Well, successful experience turns into learning without the experience for others. THanks for the info. I was wondering how this would end up. Glad you could get it right and share the experience. Maybe you could get some pics on the site so we can see exactly how much work you had to do.

Raymond759

I will try again today. Because the extractors are rather small, the focus needs to be better than the first set of photos I took.

Ray

Raymond759

Okay Alabaster, here's my best attempt with my current camera (no macro setting).

First two views are arranged as following: Left is newly fitted extractor, center is the previous owner's modified extractor (too much removed), and the right is a brand new, unmodified extractor.

Here's view number 1.



View number 2.



The following view is rotated 180 degrees, so left, brand new, unmodified. Center is previous owner modified (too much removed) and right is my newly fitted extractor.



The differences are mostly subtle and I hope you can see the differences.

Ray

Alabaster

Thanks for those. It seems the shadow on the 2nd pic hides the shortness of the "Overtuned" extractor hook. It seems to me that those pics came out better than you had me thinking they would!

Thanks again, Raymond759. Looking at that series of pics makes me first think that JMB was somewhat one-track minded in his designs, but then on the 2nd hand I think why mess with success?!

Raymond759

Alabaster:

In the third view, I think things with the overdone extractor are the most clear:

You see the shine of the filing on the forward edge of the hook. The right side has been beveled too much. There is a half-round near the hook that has been dramatically altered-the half round is to allow the extractor to exactly follow the extractor tunnel.

I followed the logic that less is more. I simply broke the edges that would contact the case rim so that nothing was sharp there. I bent the extractor to put additional pressure on the case rim. It may have worked with no modifications, however I was pleased with the results of my minimal modifications.

Ray

Alabaster

IME, it seems to be the rule to follow when tuning nearly any extractor.

You're right about that angle, too. You can definitely see it best in that 3rd pic. Thanks again,