Shell extractor

[jerrbear]

Have a M1888RB rifle that came with all the goodiies in the butt stock including a M1882 Broken Shell Extractor. I am sure this has been addressed before but how is this used. Tried to find info on the net but came up empty. Looking for an answer! Thanks

Information

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[Dan Shapiro]

The extractor was inserted into the rear of the broken shell, and the receiver closed in order to "seat it". The receiver was then opened and the cleaning rod/bayonet used to force extractor out along with the broken shell casing.

[45govt]

A little more to it than that,

I posted this on the other forum awhile back

"If you have a case separate, ie, the head comes off or it breaks, you unscrew the tip from the tool and insert into the opposite end, then stick that into the chamber with the tip you inserted toward the muzzle then close the breach, now take the ramrod or cleaning rod and insert into muzzle and give it a couple of good whacks on top of the extractor, what that does is spread the "fingers" of the extractor and grabs the stuck case, then open the breach and give a couple more taps with the rod on top of the extractor and the broken/separated case and extractor should come right out.

Whew, I hope you can understand that. "

[Dan Shapiro]

Poyer and Riesch "The .45-70 Springfield" explains it on pages 202 and 203. You mention you have the M1882 extractor. To expound on the last explanation. Unscrew the small 'drift' that is screwed into one end. Now take the 'extractor' (large part) and insert it into the muzzle. The end that you took the small drift off of goes first. (Those things that look like threads on one end are actually called grasping grooves). Now take the 'drift' that you unscrewed from the extractor and screw it onto the cleaning rod/bayonet. This is then inserted into the muzzle and down into the front face of the extractor. Inserting the drift causes the front fingers of the extractor to expand and grasp the sides of the cartridge. You can now tap the broken cartridge case out of the chamber.

[5MadFarmers]

There is a clear warning about that headless shell extractor having to do with being very careful to ensure you don't have it in the barrel. The reason is obvious - it'll be a bugger to remove, as in "impossible," if you deploy it too early.

The 1882 headless shell extractor is covered in both an ordnance note and in some of the 1882 editions of the Description and Rules manual. I say "some of the" for the 1882 manual as there are 3 printings:
1 without that extractor
1 with it
1 with it and with a big red warning.

If you're still looking, let me know and I'll post pictures of the instructions from either the note or the manual.

I finally ran into original instructions for the 1876 extractor too. Hiding in an odd place they were.

[5MadFarmers]

Let's see if it can inline. If they come through you should be able to zoom on them. They're not huge but then again I'm not going to try to track down the originals either - have too many to go through.

[Jim K]

Since the main cause of extraction problems with the trapdoor was the rifle extractor partially tearing through the thin copper rim of Benet-primed cases, inserting the headless shell extractor into the chamber clearly would not work. The only headless shell extractor that would work in that situation would be one that could be inserted through the barrel, then expanded to grip the case, as shown.

The only alternative would be a knife or some other tool to pry the remains of the case out of the chamber, a method we know was used and did not always work. Unfortunately, either method required taking the rifle out of service for a period of time, a risky procedure in combat if the soldier wanted to retain his scalp.

The issue of drawn copper and brass "solid head"* cases after 1879 effectively eliminated the extraction problem.

*We would call them "balloon head" but they were a vast improvement over the folded head Benet primed cases.

Jim

[5MadFarmers]

Since the main cause of extraction problems with the trapdoor was the rifle extractor partially tearing through the thin copper rim of Benet-primed cases, inserting the headless shell extractor into the chamber clearly would not work. The only headless shell extractor that would work in that situation would be one that could be inserted through the barrel, then expanded to grip the case, as shown.

The only alternative would be a knife or some other tool to pry the remains of the case out of the chamber, a method we know was used and did not always work. Unfortunately, either method required taking the rifle out of service for a period of time, a risky procedure in combat if the soldier wanted to retain his scalp.

The issue of drawn copper and brass "solid head"* cases after 1879 effectively eliminated the extraction problem.

*We would call them "balloon head" but they were a vast improvement over the folded head Benet primed cases.

Jim

Maybe I was being unclear or am not understanding you?

Yes, the shell extractor is inserted from the barrel end.

Yes, that big section in red (in the images I posted) is a warning that you must be careful to ensure the extractor has made it all the way through the barrel and into the case before deploying it. Else you'll get a deployed shell extractor in the barrel and you won't get it out. Scratch one barrel.

My recommendation is to not use one at all for any reason. Before Jouster closed up there was a post on the Mauser board from a guy whom had ran one of those German sectional cleaning chains into his K98 and promptly got it wedged in real good. He was a hurting unit.

Important safety tip: not all period gear is a good idea to use. Place WW2 steel cleaning rods and 1882 broken shell extractors in this group....

Cheers.

[shjoe]

5Mad: well put and a pleasure to see you back in the forums. welcome to the jungle...

[Patrick Chadwick]

Seen in practice: at the BDMP 300 meters BPCR championships a couple of weeks back, a guy had a broken case in his 45-70. I was thinking about maybe using a case extractor when another shooter simply took a well-greased lead bullet, put it in the muzzle and (using a starter, of course) simply drove it straight down the barrel. The bullet took the detached case out with no trouble at all. So that's another piece of rarely used equipment you don't need - if you are using soft lead bullets.

As to those aluminium-link chains that Mauser fans seem to like, I had warned against them on the old board. Like pull-throughs and bore snakes they are an accident waiting to happen, and in the meantime they bell-mouth the muzzle, and asymmetrically at that! Bin them all and save your muzzle.

Patrick