Extractor for 1917 S&W

[HRT]

Gents and Ladies;
I inherited my Grandfather's S&W 1917 from my Uncle when he passed. This revo will not win any beauty contests but it was Papaws. When I got it I discovered that it was not rolling up far enough for the cylinder to lock before the hammer would fall. I found a local gunsmith who by reworking the trigger mechanism/hand was able to get it to lock up before the hammer fell. My smith tells me I will need a new extractor before I shoot too much more because of severe wear on the extractor. I've hit the normal places like E-gunparts.com and a bunch of others but have been told they are out of stock. My goal is to be able to shoot a few hundred rounds a year and be able to turn over a funtional Smith to one of my Grands when my time comes.

Can anyone hook me up with an extractor for a 45 ACP S&W 1917 or point me to someone who can?

I appreciate your help
HRT.

 

[Old Fuff]

You have a problem because extractors were individually fitted to each cylinder. If you look at the underside of the star you may notice all or part of the revolver's serial number is stamped there. So even if you find one it may not work. I'd keep looking anyway.

On one occasion I bought the whole cylinder assembly just to get an extractor, and ended up fitting the cylinder to the gun. A hard way too go, but it worked.

Also see if you can find a replacement hand. It also might cure your problem.

 

[Big Az Al]

AN odd thought here

How much did S&W change the cylinder in later model 25?

I haven't gone to my Brownells CAT, I remember that there are extractor blanks available for some S&W's there!

 

[Old Fuff]

How much did S&W change the cylinder in later model 25?

Good thought, but they changed the ratchet when they went to the short action. I believe the blanks that Numrich had are for K and J frames.

Considering that S&W had enough World War One (1917-18) parts left over to still be building 1917 Models durin the 1950's... There must be some extractors somewhere. Perhaps a telephone call to Roy Jinks at S&W might bring some positive suggestions.

 

[HRT]

Fuff
Thanks for the input. I've tried quite the number of places and they seem to be very hard to find. I'll look up Roy and see what he has to say about spares. There is a gent over on the S&W forum who has a removed cylinder with extractor but the "gas seal" is broken. I'm not smart enough about a gas seal to understand what it is, what affect being broken has and is it repairable. Other than that not much out there.

 

[shootist2121]

Smith and Wesson had a fire some years back and lost a ton of obsolete parts.. Among the casualties were the old style N frame parts. eg 1917, 1950, 1955......

The gas seal I believe is part of the cylinder itself and can be turn in a lathe and replace by a gunsmith if you need the cylander to. But i've seen were the extractor could be swapped and the timing hand adjusted.

Be safe

 

[Old Fuff]

The problem with extractors is that a blank is fitted to the cylinder, and then bored when the chamber are made. This insures that the star will match the chambers in a particular cylinder. Exchanging extractors may work but it's a long chance.

Besides S&W, Uncle Sam also had tons of parts, and some of them must be somewhere.