Observation regarding Mauser M1871 sporter rifles

[breakeyp]

I have seen and own Mauser 1871 sporting rifles professionally converted from military rifles. All I have seen to date have the extractor missing from the bolt. Is this normal or have I just been unlucky in what I look at?

The cuaway 71 was included just for fun.

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[Aragorn243]

Not normal but easily broken and not so easily replaced.

[Calif-Steve]

I've seen piles of 71/84 bolts and parts. I do not recall ever seeing 71 parts. You might have to find a good gunsmith to make the part for you.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Yep, they get lost. Quite easily. It could happen like this:

When you pull out the bolt assembly from an M1871 (or 71/84) it is COCKED. If you are not VERY careful while handling it, the cocking piece can (Murphy's Law: will) slip round and discharge the bolt. Typically it catches a piece of your finger in the process. Been there, done that - OWWWW! very painful, and the blood blister took quite a few days to disappear.

Tip: if you prefer the safety of your fingers to prefect originality, grind a little notch in the back face of the ledge on the bolt body, so the the pointed front end of the cocking piece holds in the notch when the cocked bolt is out of the rifle. I have seen this on several examples, and suspect it was a dodge known back in the 19th C.

So, wanting to preserve your fingers and rest the firing spring, your carefully uncock the bolt, and the natural position to do this is with the cocking piece upwards. Whereupon the bolt head falls off the striker body and the extractor falls off the bolt head. In the workshop this is annoying, as Murphy's Law ensures that the extractor lands in an awkward corner. Do it in the field, and you can start looking for another extractor.

That is how, I suspect, these things get not broken, but lost.

Anyway, it is not a pressure-bearing component, so it is something that could be ground and filed up from a suitable piece of steel - so-called "gauge-plate" would probably do. A slow and tedious job, but your chances of finding a spare are not good!