Extractor Life Expectancy - FULL AUTO

[Dirk Hawthorne]

I had to replace my original extractor after about 10,000 rounds. I wish I had kept a more exact round count.

It looks exactly the same as the new one, but the new one definitely fit tighter in its lair in the bolt.

I was thinking maybe give it a tiny bend with a lump hammer and a vice and see if it will work good again. They're expensive now!

I'm an engineer and I can tell you for certain that "spring set" is a thing. Steel springs relax under load, over time. It's called "creep." When we design prestressed concrete beams, we allow about 20% loss of force in the prestressing strands to account for creep in the steel strands and the concrete beam.

How many rounds are you getting out of an extractor?



I also tried testing the recoil spring using the gun weight method. A new spring keeps the bolt almost closed, while the old one allows it to open about 3/8" of an inch. Still works OK.

 

[Samuel_Hoggson]

Installed a very worn parts kit in my first FS Vector. No idea about its past history. But after about 20k, mostly steel, wondered how the extractor came out. So pulled it to look. Wasn't dirty. Reinstalled, still working perfectly. Alot more durable than M-16 extractors with steel-cased ammo anyway.

The action spring from that same kit is pretty weak now compared to others (originals from Vector and other IMI kits) but still works with 9mm and .22.

Broke a sear pin on the IMI lower from that kit. 5 minute job to replace.

 

[K2]

Hi,

Bought a F/S Vector back in 2000. I've only run handloads, brass cased ammo. When I got it I put a parts kit bolt in the gun to "preserve" the nice fresh finished bolt. At this point the used bolt is over 100,000 rounds and still runs great.

The Vector/Uzi platform doesn't go through many parts. I've been attending the local subgun match for about 25 years and it is rare to have parts breaking on an uzi.

Enjoy,

K2

 

[bigu2fan]

I got about 25,000 rounds of factory brass cased 9mm ammo through a FS Vector Uzi before the extractor needed replacing. I swapped it out with a new extractor that I got years back from RTG parts, if I remember correctly.

 

[chili17]

If i remember right, had one chip around 50k. Still worked fine only noticed it during cleaning.