I was cleaning my Sport and the extractor seemed to have very little movement when checking the spring as per the manual. I pulled the pin and all seems well but it is almost impossible to depress the spring when it is in place. Is this normal?

both of mine are the same way, I have the spring with the black rubber like insert and they are pretty stiff.

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Grover Oathkeeper

Thanks Grover,
Mine has the black O ring too. I compared it to another brand at my dealer and it seemed to be the same. I guess it's normal.

Yep, that is normal.

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Stu

I found this thread looking for answers, and the previous responses may have indeed answered my question but let me describe my situation and y'all can tell me!

I got my Sport 15 last year, and put oh, three hundred plus rounds through it on a couple of range trips. It ran without incident most of the time, but on each trip there were repeated instances where the spent round did not fully eject and got stuck, necessitating manual use of the charging handle to clear. It would run fine, but sooner or later, it would happen again. I was using stock Magpul magazines and either Aguila or Remington brass ammo.

The manual says to "Press the rear of the extractor to check that the spring works." There was some give, but not a lot (especially compared to my friend's well used CAR-15, my only other frame of reference, which had a LOT of give). I think, maybe that's the problem? So I ask S&W.

So, S&W says send it in for warranty repair, and in it goes. It comes back today, and the repair slip says HONE CHAMBER and REPLACE BOLT - and now there is ABSOLUTELY NO give when pressing the rear of the extractor.

I guess what I am asking is - was the original condition (some extractor give) NOT normal, and the new, fresh from the factory condition (NO give) normal?

It just seemed a counter-intuitive, but then again, this *is* my first rifle (and first AR) and I'm not very mechanically inclined, so I'm trying to educate myself.

Thanks in advance for any comments, etc.!

Could just be breaking in a new weapon "glitch". A year ago,any idea of when it was actually made ? Could have been the brass rounds,extractor could have been dirty,hard to say. Did you give it a good cleaning to get all the factory storage lube off and lube it like the good manual says ? It does happen now and then. But yes,they should be stiff.

Yeah it should be hard to move.
Otherwise how could it have enough tension to grip and hold the rim of the cartridge/case as it's being pulled from the chamber.

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Hold my beer and watch this!