A few years back, Rock Island Auction Co. sold an Illinois State Police issued Model 39. What I found interesting about that gun was the altered extractor (photo attached).
As most of you probably know, the original 39 extractor was a large, one piece affair made of spring steel that slipped into a groove in the side of the slide. It was simple, elegant, and certainly seemed robust enough, but in service proved too susceptible to fracturing. The 39-2's solution was a more conventional, smaller extractor that swiveled on a pinned axis and was powered by a small coil spring set behind it to the rear of the pivot point.
In this workaround, the wide 39 extractor profile is retained, the back piece evidently being but a filler. A hole has been drilled to accommodate the insertion of a pin around which an equally wide claw portion can rotate. I'd presume there's a hidden spring that powers its latching onto the cartridge case. In other words, this is essentially the 39-2's system designed to fit in the extractor recess of a 39 slide.
I don't know if this work was done at the factory, or whether kits were provided whereby an agency armorer or a contractor could make the modification. It'd seem to be a stretch (and a liability) to suppose that the Illinois State Police (or any other law enforcement agency) would've engineered this fix on their own. Frankly, it seems to me that a more logical and efficient procedure, either from S&W's or the customer's standpoint, would've been to simply swap out the 39 slides for 39-2 ones (as they're certainly interchangeable), than to put this much effort into a makeshift reworking of each individual pistol.
As most of you probably know, the original 39 extractor was a large, one piece affair made of spring steel that slipped into a groove in the side of the slide. It was simple, elegant, and certainly seemed robust enough, but in service proved too susceptible to fracturing. The 39-2's solution was a more conventional, smaller extractor that swiveled on a pinned axis and was powered by a small coil spring set behind it to the rear of the pivot point.
In this workaround, the wide 39 extractor profile is retained, the back piece evidently being but a filler. A hole has been drilled to accommodate the insertion of a pin around which an equally wide claw portion can rotate. I'd presume there's a hidden spring that powers its latching onto the cartridge case. In other words, this is essentially the 39-2's system designed to fit in the extractor recess of a 39 slide.
I don't know if this work was done at the factory, or whether kits were provided whereby an agency armorer or a contractor could make the modification. It'd seem to be a stretch (and a liability) to suppose that the Illinois State Police (or any other law enforcement agency) would've engineered this fix on their own. Frankly, it seems to me that a more logical and efficient procedure, either from S&W's or the customer's standpoint, would've been to simply swap out the 39 slides for 39-2 ones (as they're certainly interchangeable), than to put this much effort into a makeshift reworking of each individual pistol.
