After a through cleaning of my AR15's bolt I noticed that the little spring that is on the extractor was missing a buffer.  On all my other's there is a little blue or black buffer inside the sping.  I can't imagine the buffer fell out during the cleaning process.  More likely than not, it was never there to begin with.  Now I've fire about 500 rounds through this weapon with out any malfunctions.  So, should I leave well enough alone or is this a dangerous part to be missing?  Your thoughts?



Try this link if the picture won't load and see the extractor picture
http://groups.msn.com/TheMarylandAR15ShootersSite/inspection.msnw

Note in this picture you can see the blue buffer which is missing on my extractor.


Regards,
Gary

leave it, see how long it will go before fte's, might be a special spring

Older SGW/OLY ARs never had  those, just a spring. My 20 yr. old bolt still doesn't have one and it's OEM. 3K no problems

I replaced the extractor spring in my Oly 11.5" with an M4 spring and forgot the buffer. That was 2K ago. I havent had any issues at all.

I've got an old M16A1 upper that doesn't have the spring insert and runs just fine...

Thanks guys....I got the message loud and clear.  If it ain't broke...don't fix it.  I shall leave it well enough alone.

Regards,
Gary