I have a prob with a small autopistol I just purchased. Discovered the sharp end of the extractor is chipped off, causing it to sorta skip over the rim and not yank the round out of the chamber. How many smiths can produce a replica if presented the original as a pattern? Is it a reasonable request? I have done a search for the part like at e gunparts etc. No listing but it is not a super rare gun I don't think. Probably parts somewhere but not in any quantity.
Gunsmiths make small parts?
- Thread starter Tom2
- Start date
French Rr 51. Not that common in the US. Produced from '51 till rather late, but is sort of an archaic design, roots going back to the WW1 Ruby pistols, which it resembles. Never was commercially sold in the US, only as a surplus gun. Imported maybe 30 years ago. Would have to find one off of a junker somewhere, someone probably has it, just that finding them difficult! Then again since it was mass produced in France and used there up to the last decade, I should think that a gun parts seller in France may have such a thing, but how do I contact a parts seller over there?! And then speak the language? I know of a young man who has started a gunsmith career, perhaps he needs a challenge like this.
grymster2007
New member
Since it is broken, it might be kinda hard to know exactly what to machine the new one to, but a decent machinist could probably infer enough to do it. Be a good idea to know what the OEM material was and choose equivalent or better. You have pic?
Tom
I just did a google search and found a bit of info, no parts lists or anything like you said. If I find anything I will let you know
Try a smith, especially if there is an identical ejector claw on the other side, he could copy that one, or build your chipped one up to the same spec.
hope you can get it going, it looks like a cool gun
good luck
I just did a google search and found a bit of info, no parts lists or anything like you said. If I find anything I will let you know
Try a smith, especially if there is an identical ejector claw on the other side, he could copy that one, or build your chipped one up to the same spec.
hope you can get it going, it looks like a cool gun
good luck
madcratebuilder
New member
Tom2, a real gunsmith should have no problem making a new part for you, complete with heat treating and/or surface hardening.
MountainBear
New member
I agree, a good gunsmith will have no problem making the part, but it'll cost you a bunch. Material, machine time, fitting time are not cheap. Plus ammo to function check. It might end up being more than you want to spend.
Just FWIW, that is a blowback pistol, which means the extractor doesn't pull the case out of the chamber, except when unloading an unfired round. In normal operation, the gas pushes the case out of the chamber and the extractor only acts as a pivot for the ejection.
I don't know if it will help, but that gun was made by Manufacture d'Arms des Pyrenees in Hendaye, France under the Unique tradename. It is a civilian version of the Unique Kriegsmodell, which was made for the Germans during the occupation (grips read "9 schuss") and also for the French Police (grips read "RF" for Republique Francaise). Both guns are pretty common - I know where two are for sale right now. So try a parts search under Unique and Kriegsmodell as well as the RR.
Jim
I don't know if it will help, but that gun was made by Manufacture d'Arms des Pyrenees in Hendaye, France under the Unique tradename. It is a civilian version of the Unique Kriegsmodell, which was made for the Germans during the occupation (grips read "9 schuss") and also for the French Police (grips read "RF" for Republique Francaise). Both guns are pretty common - I know where two are for sale right now. So try a parts search under Unique and Kriegsmodell as well as the RR.
Jim
It is just the very end of the extractor that is chipped off, like 1 millimeter or something. So the end is just not sharp enough to grab the cases for manual extraction. Which is unsafe for clearing the gun. I know that a blowback will probaby extract itself, aka the Beretta minis, but I don't want to fire till I get that taken care of. Suppose I could talk to e gunparts as they may have odds and ends onesies twosies they don't list in the webpage? I know their record keeping is antique too. It is just a pivoting external extractor hook with a spring under one end and the hook on the other. I doubt that I could tell from eyeballing whether another gun's extractor would work if not side by side. Neat little gun. Sold to Morocco and has their mark on it. Feels good in the hand like an old Beretta pocket pistol. Durn heavy.
Mountainbear and Madcratebuilder are right. Any gunsmith can make that part, but it won't be cheap. Sometimes, if I had time, I would make a part like that because I could do it in the time it would take to find the part in a catalog, write up the order, and mail it. But that was only when I felt like it and the customer was in a hurry and would pay a reasonable price. Gunsmiths normally [try to] get around $60 or so an hour and it takes about a 1/2 hour to make a part like that. So a $7 part becomes a $30-35 part, and most customers won't pay that.
If you have a set of files and some flat steel, you might try your hand. Cut a piece of steel out with a hacksaw, then grind or file to shape. Drill the hole first as a reference point.
Jim
If you have a set of files and some flat steel, you might try your hand. Cut a piece of steel out with a hacksaw, then grind or file to shape. Drill the hole first as a reference point.
Jim
Bill DeShivs
New member
You can file the underside of the existing extractor so that it seats deeper, and then reshape the tip.
Bill, you could be right. The extractor engages the cartridge enough to push it out just a little from the slide, but since the tip is dull, broken off at an angle, it will not stay hooked in the tiny .32 ACP rim well. Assuming the spring still has enough pressure, it might do to refit the shape of it a bit. As for the extractor duplicate costing 30 bucks, I could swallow that to make a gun work. 7$ part? maybe wholesale, but price an extractor for any automatic pistol besides a 1911 or something imported surplus with a ton of spares. I bet if you went to buy one from Walther for instance, you would pay most of that 30 if not all. Depends on the gun? I could take pictures as some suggested but without driving out the pin and taking it out of the slide, you could not see much.
armedandsafe
New member
I've contacted a friend in England to take a look at this thread. He has some very good contacts. We'll see if he has anything to say.
He will either sign in or give me info which I'll pass on.
Pops
He will either sign in or give me info which I'll pass on.
Pops
grymster2007
New member
Will mild steel work for this thing? Or does it need to be hard or springy?
Bill DeShivs
New member
Needs to be harder than mild steel, for it to last.
armedandsafe
New member
My contact in Cambridge responded to my query:
I don't think that part has to be very hardened, although soft will wear a little faster, The brass it is grabbing is much softer than steel, but the repeated wiping action will cause wear over time.
I'd try the recut of the part, but I would first make a scale drawing of what you have, as accurately as you can.
I suspect I could machine the part in a little time and I am NOT a machinist.
Pops
I don't think that part has to be very hardened, although soft will wear a little faster, The brass it is grabbing is much softer than steel, but the repeated wiping action will cause wear over time.
I'd try the recut of the part, but I would first make a scale drawing of what you have, as accurately as you can.
I suspect I could machine the part in a little time and I am NOT a machinist.
Pops
grymster2007
New member
If Tom would post a drawing or a pic and some specs, I dunno, maybe I'd make it for him. Biggest concern would be the material. It'd be nice to know what it is and it's properties. Or what material it should be and hardened to what state.
Got ambitious and followed someone's advice. Pulled the extractor out of the gun. Little work with a file, some stones, and cold blue. Reshaped the end of the extractor so the chipped off area is gone and now there is a good edge to the end of the extractor. Relieved the extractor a little bit on the back side so it could seat a bit deeper. Stoned off the roughness and cleaned out the cutout, relubed and reassembled it. Some good news. Now it will chamber and extract blaser rounds. Some other rounds will not extract so easily. I think the problem is that the throating is all wrong, I think the throat or the lands are just slightly engaging the bullet! Drop a round in by hand and it moves a bit at the rear, I don't think the chamber is too tight. But after a round is seated by the slide, it takes a good rap to knock it back out of the barrel. I think I can see little marks from the rifling, maybe, at the base of the bullet. I think the extractor would be sufficient if the loaded cartridge was not, in some cases, jamming a bit in chamber. Methinks now I need a chambering reamer to clean up the transition from bore to chamber! I don't know how hard the steels are in this thing, but the quality of the gun is comparable to some Spanish guns I have seen. Or lesser Italians. I would have thought the French would have "had it together" with hundreds of years of armsmaking!