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Page AR-15 » Troubleshooting
AR Sponsor: bravocompany
Posted: 4/17/2014 1:10:52 PM EDT
Was out shooting with a buddy and after I showed him how to clean his S&W M&P Ar.  I have a Colt LE6920.  When I broke down the extractor, his had an oring around the extractor spring???  Never seen that before.  My Colt did not, My bushy did not.  Nor have I ever seen that.  Is this an S&W thing only???  Or am i missing oring I never noticed before on my Ar's?
Link Posted: 4/17/2014 2:45:15 PM EDT
[#1]
It's been around for years. Did your bubby get his AR used?
Link Posted: 4/17/2014 6:10:57 PM EDT
[#2]
New out the box.  Been around for years for Smith?  Or all?
Link Posted: 4/17/2014 6:34:28 PM EDT
[#3]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
New out the box.  Been around for years for Smith?  Or all?
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No. It's a military thing that was developed in response to malfunctions on FA M4's and M16's (failure to eject). I guess it's just become fashionable, and some mfr's are including it as a kind of marketing thing. It's almost totally unnecessary on a SA civilian gun, with one exception being in the case where an extractor spring has sagged, and there is no longer adequate extractor grip.
Link Posted: 4/17/2014 6:34:40 PM EDT
[#4]
My point being is I thought all parts were exchangable with all parts on the AR platform?  So if one has an oring and the other does not, which is right and can the oring be added or taken away with no issues?
Link Posted: 4/17/2014 6:48:31 PM EDT
[#5]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
My point being is I thought all parts were exchangable with all parts on the AR platform?  So if one has an oring and the other does not, which is right and can the oring be added or taken away with no issues?
View Quote


Any mil-spec extractor spring should extract properly for thousands of rounds. That said, variations in QC among suppliers, high round counts, extractors with poorly-formed or worn claws, or ammunition with dimensional variances can introduce FTE's. I'd offer the opinion that any extractor that *requires* an o-ring for reliable extraction is an out-of-spec, faulty extractor. Why mfr's now put them in what should otherwise be fully-functional, mil-spec uppers is beyond me. Well, not actually: if I was an mfr, and could add a $0.02 item that increased buyer confidence and added a few (perhaps hundreds) of sales per year.......why would I not do that?
Link Posted: 4/17/2014 9:47:09 PM EDT
[#6]
:):):)
Link Posted: 4/17/2014 10:30:54 PM EDT
[#7]
As barrels have gotten shorter, cycling issues have cropped up.  The Army technical data package (TDP) for manufacturing M16s and M4s was updated to include a new extractor spring insert (black), in place of the old one (blue).

The o-ring around the spring started as a commercial fix for failures to extract on short barrels, associated with opening up gas ports to cycle on weak, crap ammo causing extraction issues when you moved up to regular, hot milspec ammo loads.  With a black insert and an o-ring, it's possible to run your over gassed carbine on a wide variety of ammo, but it does tend to be hard on the brass.

The military only ever runs M855, basically, so military M16s and M4s get by just on the black extractor spring insert.
Link Posted: 4/18/2014 1:53:20 AM EDT
[#8]
The Colt Gold spring has replaced all these shenanigans.
Link Posted: 4/18/2014 7:33:35 AM EDT
[#9]
Link Posted: 4/20/2014 6:12:04 AM EDT
[#10]
that little o-ring can cause problems in very cold weather. when it gets cold the rubber won't compress enough to allow the extractor to slip over the rim during the feed stroke,  preventing the bolt from going fully into battery. solution is to simply remove the o-ring. probably not an issue for most people.
Link Posted: 4/20/2014 11:35:48 AM EDT
[#11]
Page AR-15 » Troubleshooting
AR Sponsor: bravocompany
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