Originally Posted by
10x25mm
Indifferent heat treatment and poor steel gets most of the blame for lost extractor tension, but most such occurrences seem to be the result of single loading cartridges directly to the chamber, rather than using the magazine to feed all rounds. The front of the extractor claw slamming into the base of a cartridge bows the leaf spring length of the extractor severely, eventually deforming it.
John Browning adopted the Model 1911 extractor design to assure that the pistol would pass mud and muck immersion tests. The earlier Browning locked breech pistols leading up to the final 1911 design used external fulcrum extractors which were more amenable to single loading directly into the chamber. The U.S. Army trials officers considered single loading directly into the chamber to be a rare emergency drill, while mud and muck resistance was considered the paramount issue.