[oso]

i went to the range yesterday and while shooting my pt 1911 after 12 rds. down range the pistol stopped extracting empty cases. upon returning home and cleaning pistol and inspecting the extractor,i found the end of the extractor which grabs the rim of the empty case broke off. i only have about 350 rds. through that pistol and a broken extractor already. i must have recieved a pistol with a weak or damaged extractor from the factory. i own a pt 99 i bought in 1987 and have at least 15,000 rds. through it and have never had a single issue of any kind. i also bought my wife a milpro pt 111 9mm 4 years ago and that pistol has performed flawlessly. i have had very good luck with taurus reliability, that is why i was shocked to find a broken extractor.i contacted the dealer where i bought my pt 1911 and he told me to bring it back to him and he will take care of it. i don't know if he will send it to taurus or contact his distributer who is DAVIDSONS. since the pistol is only a month and a half old i think he probably will just have davidsons replace it. if the pistol is replaced i hope the left side thumb saftey i fitted to the pistol will work in the new pistol. does anybody have some thoughts on the saftey? if the pt 1911 are hand fitted do you think a thumb saftey fitted for one pistol will work in another? i think(hope) it will.luckily the extended slide stop i installed was a drop in part i know that will work, even if some fitting is required becuase i did'nt have to remove any material from it. well i guess i will find out later this afternoon whether it goes back to taurus or davidsons replaces it. if it is going back to taurus do you think instead of sending it back taurus would send me a new extractor and i will replace it myself. that would be a quicker fix and my beloved pt 1911 won't be gone for weeks.

 

[BigSkiff]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Broken extractors are just a part of the process with a 1911, it's the weakest part of the design. It doesn't matter what brand of 1911 either. If you own a 1911 sooner or later you will be replacing the extractor. One of the quickest ways to damage or break your extractor is to manually chamber a round and then release the slide closing the breech. The design of the extractor is to allow a round to slide up from the magazine with the rim of the case sliding in between the extractor and the breech face. When you manually put a round into the chamber and then release the slide the extractor is forced to bend around the case rim in order for the breech to close all the way. This puts a lot of stress on the extractor and will cause it to break. In order to load the 1911 to capacity with one in the chamber, you need to insert the magazine, then pull the slide back and release it, chambering a round, and then remove the magazine and top off the mag before reinserting it into the pistol.

I expect if you were to call Taurus Customer Service they would probably send you an extractor if you wanted to replace it yourself? If you've already taken your gun back to the dealer, then I'd just wait for the repaired gun to be returned to you.

 

[oso]

thanks BigSkiff, i always loaded the pistol just as you have described. other pistols i own kahr,s&w,colt etc...all reccomend loading as you described. i haven't taken it back to dealer yet i won't get a chance until later this afternoon.

 

[cuban]

Skiff, I've always heard that cliché that extractor are like light bulbs but I think that these extractor are breaking because of (push feed) which can be caused by three different components that is if the FPS is not holding the extractor tight the extractor can (clock) that is turn slightly clock wise and not allow the rim of the case to slide smoothly behind the hook, second if you magazine spring is weak or you haven't smoothed out the magazine case with lets say some plumbers emery cloth, the slide will return to battery quicker than the magazine spring and cause the hook to miss the case rim creating a (push feed), three a 16# recoil spring is really over sprung compared to the original design which was 14# and cause a (push feed) which forces the hook over the case rim which was never intended to happen, and Fourth the standard stock extractor provided by Taurus is not shaped correctly, a correctly profiled hook should be shaped with a beveled bottom as to create a funnel and that area should be mirror polished to easily scoop up the case rim. by changing out your stock Recoil spring from stock 16# to 14# allows the magazine spring to catch up and prevent (push feed), must 1911 owner think that the recoil spring is to tame the recoil but in fact the compression of the spring is to cock it for it's intended purpose which is to feed a fresh round into the chamber.

An extractor on a well tuned 1911 should last you into the thousands of rounds, the reason I know that the stock extractors from Taurus are not profiled correctly is that I ordered an extra one from them and the bottom of the hook was not beveled correctly but was shaped straight down with out that most important bevel that is shaped like a funnel for easy scoop up of the case rim. I hear from people that say that the extractors made by Taurus are inferior and MIM but theres no evidence that their either if anything they are exceptionally made from good forged spring steel when you think of all the round that are shot through them with incorrect profiles and constantly being pushed forced over the case rim.

OSO, if you call Taurus in Miami and ask to speak with Christian @ ext 238 he will send you a new extractor with in a weeks time he's the go to man there, just remember that you will have to profile the bottom of the hooks correctly, I think if you Google 1911 extractor profile you should find an illustration of what the correct profile should be, you might have to buy some fine jeweler's file from Lowe's to cut the bottom of the hook correctly. Good Luck

Cuban

 

[oso]

thanks for info Cuban, i do have a gunsmith's file set i do gunsmith work part time. most of my work is custom AR-15's & AR-10's,but i do work on all firearms. i didn't really pay any attention to the extractor on the pt 1911 being brand new until yesterday when it broke apart.

 

[BigSkiff]

Cuban, I agree with what you've said, all those things could be part of the problem. My reference to hand loading the chamber and then dropping the slide wasn't really intended to be an identification of the problem as much as it was just a warning regarding what not to do. It seems a lot of new first time owners of 1911's want to do that for some reason. My PT1911AL has over 10K rounds through it without a problem. The bottom of the extractor on mine does have the bevel filed onto it. I had always thought that bevel was something you did when you fit the extractor to the gun as it is a point that most Smiths will check and tune up when they replace the extractor. So yes, it certainly can be any or all of the above!

 

[cuban]

thanks BigSkiff, i always loaded the pistol just as you have described. other pistols i own kahr,s&w,colt etc...all reccomend loading as you described. i haven't taken it back to dealer yet i won't get a chance until later this afternoon.

having reread your post I am confused do you mean as he dicribed not to do or as he decribe the correct way?

 

[oso]

the correct way of course.just got back from dealer where i bought pt 1911, he contacted his distributer and i will have a new replacement pistol wed.would have had it tomorrow if the rep. he deals with wasn't off today. oh well 1 extra day is no big deal.

 

[TexasAviator]

Good luck getting the soon! Thats some good customer service all things considered. I hope all works out well.

 

[oso]

that's Davidsons for you,that's why anymore i buy all my firearms through 1 dealer near me. usually if a firearm has a issue davidsons just replaces it instead of sending it back to manufacturer. when at the dealer i see all brands going back from rock island,glock,s&w,sig,ruger,kimber pretty much any manufacturer has firearms that have problems. it's not just low priced firearms there are just as many highend firearms being replaced. the dealers pricing is very competative,he will match any price and with davidsons behind him you cant go wrong. he was telling me yesterday that anymore 65% of his buisness is internet sales.

 

[olfarhors]

well of course in my opinion if you own a 1911, any 1911 then you should have a backup extractor and recoil spring!
if you got them you ain't gonna need them, if you ain't got them then you gonna need them!
and as cheap as they are its simply good insurance and common sense.
IF any of you recall I had a soft extractor in my new 38 Super, profile was fine but it would get loose after about 20-30 rounds and randomly stop extracting!it
spent 5 weeks laying around on the beach in Miami waiting for an extractor to come in from Brazil!
Murphys LAW I got a couple 45 acp extractors! did one of them break?? heck no!!
better believe that i got 2 new ones waiting for the next time!
2 -extractors -25 bucks- piece of mind?????-priceless!

 

[oso]

i agree with you as to having a backup, but 350 rds. and only a month and a half old the extractor should last longer than that. i will be picking up new(replaced) pistol this afternoon. i will check out the extractor and the profile of it.

 

[olfarhors]

i agree with you as to having a backup, but 350 rds. and only a month and a half old the extractor should last longer than that. i will be picking up new(replaced) pistol this afternoon. i will check out the extractor and the profile of it.

yep, just never can tell about a 1911 extractor!
the chances of another one having a bad extractor is pretty slim, i am sure it will be a good one, just hard to figure when they are going to break.
I think i have had 1 extractor break a tip over the years out of goodness how many rounds down range with 1911's.
the 38 super has been fine since i got it back and so as they say the beat goes on.
good luck and let us know how it works out.

 

[dogchild]

Thanks for the reminder, i think i will give Taurus a call today

 

[Grasshopper1911]

Just got mine. And I'll have to give Taurus a call to get another. I was reading up on a site of what the profile should look like and it looked to me that my extractor looked 'sloopy'. Not polished but dull. Bevel looked half done if at all.

Source:
Extractor Tuning Tips

 

[oso]

picked up my new(replacement) PT1911 this afternoon. i inspected the extractor and it doesn't have the correct profile, it doesn't have any bevel at the bottom to give it that funnel shape. you are correct Cuban in your observations of the extractor tauras uses. so tomorrow i will clean pistol remove extractor do some beveling and polishing on the extractor, replace the ambi-saftey with left sided safteyand remove factory slide stop and replace with extended tactical slide stop. yes Olfarhors the 1911 does have a SLIDE STOP. look at Colt's schematic and parts list it is a slide stop.

 

[JGower]

Well, you at least made it past the first day and 50rds that I shot. But the new has worked so far so I am happy.

 

[cuban]

OSO, don't forget to check for extractor (clocking) if your FPS is not tight to the back of the extractor grove it will turn slightly and cause a push feed, the only way I know to fix it is with an EGW over sized FPS. But after you get your extractor installed try and grab the end of the extractor with a needle nose plier and turn it clock wise and check the back of slide to see if the extractor moves if it does you will need an over sized FPS.

Cuban