Quote:
Originally Posted by Goony
The extractor configuration is what differentiates the two.
The 39 has a large extractor that serves as its own spring and is retained partly by that intrinsic tension, but mostly by butting up against the safety lever.
The 39-2 has a smaller, more conventional extractor that requires a small coil spring underneath to function and a transverse pin to both hold it in place and serve as a pivot point. Counterintuitively, this latter design was adopted as being supposedly more satisfactory from the standpoint of durability.
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and I can tell you from experience that the one on the pre dash is probably more fragile than the dash 2 as it broke on my fathers steel framed one from 62 about 5 - 10 years ago after its first box of ammo in probably 30 years.
Thankfully though out of dumb luck we bumped into an ex smith and wesson employee at a local gunshow who just so happened to have a spare pre dash style extractor and its worked perfectly ever since with that part, think we actually picked up a spare just incase as well.