I don’t keep track of how many rounds I shoot through the Les Baer TRS, so 10K might be a liberal estimate. I’ve only had to change the recoil spring twice, but only after noticing the brass spitting out harder than usual. In any case, the extractor broke. I wasn’t too happy – not because the extractor broke, but I’ve been meaning to get a spare for quite sometime to avoid downtime… Thank you, Murphy.
I ordered two EGW extractors from Brownells. The first extractor was an expensive experiment. After I ground the extractor base flush to the slide, I found that the extractor would bind behind the cartridge. I did a few bends, filed the hook, etc. and I still couldn’t figure it out. I took the second extractor, installed it without fiddling with anything, and confirmed that the rim of the casing cammed inside the hook perfectly. From here, I checked for clocking and tension. I only had to tweak the extractor ever-so-slightly. Clocking wasn’t a problem. I wish I had confirmed this on the first extractor. Now I won’t know if it’s something I did or if it was a variation in the EGW extractor. Oh well.
I grounded down the extractor base flush to the slide and cold blued the exposed metal. I also beveled and polished the hook according to the extractor tuning tips by Bill Wilson on www.m1911.org.
I haven’t shot it yet, but it appears to eject inert cartridges and empty brass just fine. I’ll be sure to report back when I get the final results.
Good job on the second try you jerk!!! haha