I had the extractor fall out of the bolt of an L61R this weekend. I think it is the fault of either the retainer spring being weakened or the retainer plunger being slightly damaged (the extractor was blown off several years ago due to a case head separation -- never pick up range brass -- and there may have been some difficult to detect damage in that incident). The extractor itself looks fine, but then it's hard to tell with my aging eyes just how sharp the surfaces are on any of these parts.

At any rate, my question is this: If I want to replace all of the parts, will the aftermarket kits for converting Rem 700s sold through Brownells and others fit? I'm dubious that they will in that I removed an extractor from a very slightly older L61R and found that its retainer spring and plunger were a slightly larger diameter, although the extractor itself would interchange just fine.

Anybody have any help for me? THANKS!

The original Sako extractors all used the same spring and plunger, from what I have seen. When ordering parts for these, the part numbers are the same for all of the variants. The only differences are in the extractor itself. I think!

I would call Brownell's tech line and ask them to give you the diameter of the spring and plunger on their parts to see if they will fit.

Jim

Stonecreek, You might check out these:

http://www.davidtubb.com/extractors.html#top


They are "Sako Style" instead of being specific Sako parts but they do make them in 5 differnet sizes. Maybe you could make some measurements give them a call and find one that would work for you........................DJ

Thanks for the suggestion on Brownell's tech line, Jim. By the way Jim, where do your order your replacement extractor parts?

DJ, I actually called the David Tubb company (Precision Shooting, I think they're called). Unfortunately, the guy I spoke with didn't know if their product was actually dimensioned the same as the original Sako, or simply patterned after it with possibly different dimension.

I have a fairly extensive collection of Sakos. I think I'll check out their extractor parts to see if my .30-06 spring/plunger diameter is an outlier.

I've also purchased a very fine tiny diamond file that I can use to slightly deepen/sharpen the lip on the retaining plunger and its corresponding seat on the extractor base. Done correctly, this should help keep the extractor secure.

I have an account with Beretta USA and get my Sako parts there.