Hello. I am a brand new member of your forum and this is my first appearance on said. Forgive me if I my inquiry is not ideally formatted or placed; really don’t have any experience with online forums in general but I’d like to learn.
Can anyone give me some tips for tuning and/or replacing the “short extractor” on my Broomhandle? I recently acquired a re-worked C96, what I believe is commonly known as a “War Time Commercial”. It has a mixture of original and some reproduction parts. Originally a 30 Mauser it has been re-lined to 9mm Para. It was represented by the seller as “fully functional”, lol. The pistol has chronic failure to extract, this with a variety of standard pressure brass-cased ball factory loads. The extractor presently installed doesn’t seem to have much tension. I note that it has a slight amount of vertical play and also a tiny bit of movement fore to aft.
(1) Should there be any “play” present at all as to the extractor’s fixture in the bolt? If so, what is usually acceptable?
(2) Can these extractors be “tuned” in any way by bending or other techniques?
(3) How important is the fit of the small “wings” on the extractor to the corresponding recesses in the bolt? Should a slightly oversized extractor be sought so that it may be fit to the bolt? If so, what is the best method(s) to accomplish this; filing, stoning, etc?
(4) Anybody had particularly good or bad luck with a given brand of after-market extractor? I’m even considering ordering one all the way from the U.K.
I’m optimistic that the gun may be OK otherwise. On the few occasions where the pistol did extract, ejection, feeding, and firing of the next round went smoothly. I have some general gunsmithing training and experience but zero experience working on the C96. Any insights on working on this fascinating pistol will be appreciated!
