Model 41 standard extractor or volquartson?

I am seriously considering changing out the extractor which I believe to be original to my 1979 model 41. Had a serious bunch of alibis in cold weather that were failures to extract. The pistol had less than 300 rounds through it since last cleaning: barrel, barrel chamber, bolt face, extractor, and the usual field stripping of the receiver with cleaning. I did not take apart the extractor and firing pin assembly’s. My question to the members of this forum: stay with a standard Smith and Wesson extractor or go with the Volquardsen?

Volquartzen in mine. Never an alibi.

Volquartsen. With the first cleaning where the bolt is pulled the extractor is replaced in mine.

I have installed a Volquartsen extractor in my 1978 M41. I relieved the backside so it could slide over a round in the chamber like a Hammerli X-esse. As delivered the Volquartsen extractor would not move enough outward to allow dropping the slide on a round in the chamber like a Hammerli.

Most folks may not need this feature but in the past we have had used M41s in Free Pistol competitions so single loading can be useful.

I'm a little confused over "failure to extract".  A blowback operated pistol will normally extract when fired even without an extractor.  Pressure blows the case back with the slide.  Failure to eject...now that's another issue.

That is why it was happening the extractor was not extracting the fired case. The bolt would try to pick up the next round and the round could not go anywhere and jammed up on the case still in the chamber. I am going to do the old plunk test later today and use a angled brush to scrub out the chamber whether it is a successful plunk test or not. Also will brush out the bolt face and the chamber face for any built-up crud but I had cleaned it 300 rounds earlier prior to my series of alibis of failure to eject. Maybe it was the cold weather middle 30° here and East Texas on Sunday that impacted my old model 41s performance using CCI SV.

Dr.Don wrote:I'm a little confused over "failure to extract".  A blowback operated pistol will normally extract when fired even without an extractor.  Pressure blows the case back with the slide.  Failure to eject...now that's another issue.

 My Victor made it through 1 stage TF and 2 stages of RF in a 2700 with a missing extractor one time.

Stan

I have one of the Volquartson extractors laid back as a spare part. The factory extractor seems to work fine.  I would like to know where to find some different poundage mainsprings to try out for light ejection. I have different recoil springs and they are not a cure all for light ejection.

Did you oil the shells? 

Next would be to use tight patch with Kroil or firebrush it.

It doesn't take much to hold back a shell.

Extractors are funny, they should be curved to mate with the lower quadrant of the case, not just make point contact at 3 o'clock. Takes some skill to fit them well.

xman wrote:That is why it was happening the extractor was not extracting the fired case. The bolt would try to pick up the next round and the round  could not go anywhere and jammed up on the case still in the chamber. I am going to do the old plunk test later today and use a angled brush to scrub out the chamber whether it is a successful plunk test or not. Also will brush out the bolt face and the chamber face for any built-up crud but I had cleaned it 300 rounds earlier prior to my series of alibis of failure to eject. Maybe it was the cold weather middle 30° here and East Texas on Sunday that impacted my old model 41s performance using CCI SV.

That is odd, as has been said, these blowback pistols open up when there is very low pressure in the barrel, and the case should pop out. Unless you have a lot of friction between case and chamber.

Do check to see that the breech block in the slide is tight. If it moves around, that causes extraction tension issues.

I just field stripped my model 41 cleaned all the oil and carbon. Brushed out the breach and the bold face mainly using hoppes. When I did the plunk test with my CCI SV, the casing did hold back out of the chamber about halfway. Then used a bent L-shaped 22 brush dipped in Hoppes and did a bunch of left and right left and right movements. Patched out the barrel and repeated. The CCI fit flush to the bold face as did my Aguila SE. The SE just laid right in there with no assistance whatsoever. Will find out tomorrow as I will get some long line practice in and sight in my back up 22 in case it will be needed in the next match.