Well, that was interesting

Went to the range yesterday afternoon, both for some general stress relief and to start testing something(more on that later). I was shooting my M1 Carbine when something bumped off my left hand and fell to the shelf. Picked it up, what the hell... BLEEP! That's my extractor plunger! Look at the bolt, and the bleeping extractor is gone.

If you're not familiar with the bolt on these, the firing pin, ejector & spring and extractor spring and plunger all fit into the bolt, then(and it's a pain in the ass without one) you use the bolt tool to push the ejector back into the bolt and push the extractor spring & plunger back into their recess, slide the firing pin in and then push the extractor into place; sounds a lot more complicated than it is. The extractor locks everything else in, so if it breaks or comes out...

Happily, I found the extractor, only bounced about two feet away and appears undamaged, and everything went back together properly. I've heard of this happening, but this is the first time I've seen it with a carbine. One day at another range I saw this happen to a M1A: first time to the range, about the fifth round of factory ammo. I was firing a mix of Amerc ball(yeah, it's pretty crappy, I wanted to finish off the last bit of it) and some handloads with LC brass and Remington softpoint bullets.

Other than that, nice time at the boom-room. Ran into a man and woman(husband and wife for boyfriend-girlfriend, never did think to ask) who were having some difficulty: they'd rented a AR15 to try out, first time for that rifle with him and for her, the first time she'd ever been to a range. The rifle itself didn't bother her once she'd fired her first shot, but the noise really freaked her out at first. By the time I left she'd calmed down some on that and seemed to like shooting, so I recommended a couple of things, the big one(for an indoor range) being earplugs and muffs. They were planning to come back Saturday, I made a couple of suggestions. I think she'll turn into a shooter.

By the way, why is it that all the good-looking women you meet at the range are already either married or seeing someone? Dammit.