I am really, really glad my extractor broke. Below I've cut and pasted a little write-up I did in the auto section a while back. To update: I can't get the thing to mis-fire. Cheap stuff, high vol or std vol, skip cleaning it, just keeps running now.
Mine is 21 years old.
I have a 41 I bought new in 1988 and it didn't seem to want to run properly with any type of ammo. I'm primarily a S&W revolver shooter, and then I had gotten away from the shooting sports for quite a while; I put it in the safe, and didn't give it much thought for a long time. Two years ago I dusted it off, tried some different types of annunition, then shipped it back to S&W when it wouldn't feed any of them reliably. When I got it back, it did OK with CCI Minimags, but not with the standard velocity that we hear these guns are tuned for. I was gonna live with that, then the extractor broke. So off to S&W again, and I included in my note that CCI standard velocity was still a problem. I got it back yesterday (about 10 days turn-around, which I thought was very good). There was a hand-scribbled note in the box that said: " tested extensively with std vel". OK, off to the range last night with a box of CCI std vel. I'm pleased to report that I shot up that 100 round box and then 75 rounds of the Federal Auto-match without a single problem. It makes me wonder if there had been a problem with the extractor all along. I think I'll try another 100 rounds today
