I bought this 39-2 at a gunshop about 2 years ago. It originally belonged to an auxillary policeman in one of the local towns. He passed away and I think the widow sold it to the gunshop.
Anyway, I only put about 3 rounds through it at that time.
I took it out this weekend and ran a box of 50 Winchester white box through it. I was disappointed in that about 30-40% of the rounds failed to extract, causing a jam. In those cases where I have the problem, the round will fire but the brass casing does not move rearward at all (obviously an extraction problem). Not even a fraction of an inch. The extractor looks okay to me but then I'm not very practiced at these sort of things so I could be missing something. The gun is clean and has bee kept clean. However this morning, I recleaned the gun and relubed the rails thinking that might somehow be the problem. When I test fired this morning, it repeated with the same failure rate in that I made it through 5 rounds and # 6 failed to extract.
I have two magazines that came with the gun and it acts the same with either magazine.
Any suggestions, recommendations?
Is this a simple easy fix that even I could do or does this require a visit to a gunsmith?
For what it's worth, the serial number is A284872 which I think puts it at about mid-70's production.
Thanks everyone!
Kim

Here are a couple more pics:

Your somes-extract and sometimes-not-extract suggest that that extractor function is weak.

The brass smears on the slide face suggests that it was not cleaned thoroughly.

The first thing I would do is repeatedly apply cleaning solvent to both ends of the extractor near the slide. This style of extractor is infamous for developing extraction failures due to accumulation of old, dried oil and firing residue. A couple days and several applications of solvent plus pressing in the rear of the extractor to allow solvent to reach should do the trick.

Thanks John.
I'll do that and report back with the results.

Kim

When you have the slide off, slip an empty case under the extractor to see if there is holding tension. The space between the extractor hook and the breach face should be .059-.075. push on the tail of the extractor with your thumb, you should be able to move the extractor. If you need to remove the extractor, drive the pin out from the top the extractor pivot pin's hole is tapered from the bottom of the slide. If you dont have suficient tension the extractor pad may be filed to allow the extractor to move inward of the slide to put more tension on the case. The spring from this time period should be green color.
Is your chamber rough?

Paul, I'll try that with a casing. The extractor will depress using my thumbnail allthough I didn't try it with an empty case.
No, the chamber does not look rough.

Take the slide off.
Drown it in Break Free for 24 hours.
Blow the excess off with compressed air.
Go back to the range.

Rinse.

Repeat.

__________________
WWSSD?
What would Skeeter do?

Thanks guys!

I gave it its' first breakfree bath, cleaned it up and attempted another test fire. It failed to extract on the second cartridge so back to the bath it went!
Kim

It's fixed!
After soaking for a week and that not solving the problem, I took it into the gunsmith for repair.
He ended up replacing the extractor spring and then he test fired two magazines through it with no problem. When I got it home, I ran a magazine through it and it worked fine with no problem. I can tell the spring is much stiffer than the original and I'm extremely happy to have this pistol back in use.
The gunsmith (Joe) at the shop only charged me $20! I was impressed with his work and price so I'm happy to list their shop here: Vandalia Range & Armory in Vandalia, Ohio. They have a full size retail gunshop, well run indoor pistol range and 100 yd rifle range in the basement.
Thanks to all for your suggestions.
Kim

Just registered to say "thanks" for this thread. I picked up a 39-2 still in the box, looked to be pristine. It would fail to extract about every third shell.

I "googled" the problem, it led me to this thread, and I ordered the parts from Gun Parts Corp on 4/19, received the parts today, and installed it myself. The extractor had a barely noticeable chip in it, and the spring was very "soft".

Now off to the back yard to run a box through it

Your puppy just needs a new extractor. Numrich has some Model 639 Extractors in stock that should work...