My 416 Rigby was supposedly built on a custom CNC-made copy of a Mauser 98 action. It looks like a Mauser 98 action, to someone like me with no specialist skills. And does it really matter if it is an exact duplicate of a Mauser 98 action or not anyway?
Well, yes it does – if you have to replace the extractor. The extractor claw had become chipped and needed to be replaced. No problem, I thought, since there cannot be any problems finding a replacement extractor for a Mauser 98 action. And that’s correct, if the rifle is built on a standard Mauser 98 action.
But this action is slightly different. Different enough that a standard extractor will not fit. Maybe something similar can be made to fit? Mik Maksimovic of Dolphin Gun Company (www.dolphinguncompany.co.uk) hunted high and low for a replacement extractor, or one that was close enough, with no luck. He and other gunsmiths had ones that were close, but nothing matched. I was faced with getting a new one made from scratch on a CNC machine. Not an easy task without the original CNC program.
But Mik came to the rescue with the idea of laser welding. Laser welding uses a laser beam rather than a gas flame to provide the heat source. The laser allows for precise control of the energy which means it is useful for welding small areas. It also greatly reduces heat transfer to the rest of the item being welded. This magical process added metal from a welding wire to the extractor a tiny amount at a time, until there was enough for Mik to then grind back to the original shape.
image credit: www.machinemfg.com
And voila, the extractor is now back doing what extractors do! Is it as good as a replacement extractor? Only time will tell. For the moment, I’m back shooting the rifle and that’s the important thing.
I thought I would post this solution in case others come across the same problem.
PS You’re wondering why I didn’t just get a replacement extractor from the rifle-maker who built the rifle. Let’s just say he was less than responsive to enquiries!
