1911 broken extractor hook

[golfwarrant]

I have a 10-year-old Baer 1911 that has malfunctioned once with perhaps 10k rounds through it. Yes, I said once. It will feed anything, including empty brass. One day, I was so bored with the uncanny accuracy and reliability of this pistol that I experimented with various failure-inducing techniques that I have read about and I was unable to get the pistol to fail.

I have a closet full of 7-round GI full-taper and 7-round Checkmate hybrid magazines, but I've been doing steel challenge matches using 8-round Wilson 47D mags. I was using the Wilson magazines only because of the extra round. A few weeks ago, the hook on the extractor broke off. I had a spare Baer extractor that I had pre-fit a while back in my parts case so the day was not lost.

I got home and started wondering if perhaps I had caused the break with the Wilson magazines. I've had the GI tapered feed lip magazines for eons, and I purchased the Checkmate 7-round hybrid feed lip magazines based on what I often read here from 1911Tuner and others.

The Wilson magazines have straight wadcutter feed lips and release rounds earlier than either the hybrid Checkmates or full taper GI magazines. I experimented hand cycling the action with the three types of magazines and noticed that the rim of the round often is right on the extractor hook with the Wilson magazine. The round is not quite in front, but the hook is definitely not in the groove and has to snap over as the round is chambered.

I have gone back to using the Checkmate hybrid feed lip magazines for carrying (right now it's Federal HST - yes I'm one of those old guys who still totes a 1911 every day), and I use the GI magazines for range use.

I could just be imagining things, and maybe 10k rounds is about all I should expect from an extractor. Anyway, this gun will feed anything from any magazine, so I figure if this makes me feel better, there's no downside.

Any comments about broken extractors and Wilson magazines is appreciated.

 

[J2FLAN]

Made me wonder, so I checked 2 Wilson 47s, one 7rd and one 8rd, along with 2 Checkmates, running the slide real slow, when the extractor picked-up the round from the mags, the hook was dead center in the groove with all. The Wilson mags each have different style folowers.
Guess you know, if the extractor doesn`t catch the round and is forced OVER the case rim, that can sure break it. Also, mag springs could be a factor. The short answer is, No, over many thousand a round, I haven`t had a Wilson magazine break an extractor, YET

 

[golfwarrant]

On my pistol, it seems like the round is able to pop up before the extractor hook gets far enough past the rim, so that the hook is not seated in the groove. I could be wrong...

 

[wally]

I've had extractors break at about 8000 rounds on my Colt and Armscor/Charels Daly. So you are doing about 25% better than the "cheap stuff"

OTOH the original extractor on my RIA 1911 is well past 15000 rounds.

Stuff breaks. Fix it and move on. I always say: "if you've never broken a gun, you just ain't been shooting enough!"

 

[Rubber_Duck]

If you got 10,000 rounds out of the first extractor I'd say that's reasonable. Replace and move on.