Hello All,

This is my first post and question about my first ar.

After watching a lot of stripping and lubing vids and lurking here for a while, I stripped my new M&P15 moe mid to remove the shipping oil and lube.

When I removed the bolt I checked for tension on the extractor and it would not move at all. So I pushed the pin out to check the spring which seemed compressed. I know Smith includes a rubber grommet that surrounds the spring, but there was also a hard rubber shaft down the center of the spring. It makes the spring really hard to compress.

Is the center rubber shaft supposed to be there? I've never seen mention of one and it's presence makes the extractor immovable with my fingers. Thanks, great forum here.