The American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) recently announced (the first week of May to be exact) that they will offer a new gunsmithing course scheduled to take place between the 18^th and 22^nd of May (which means they just wrapped it up last week). The new gunsmithing course is dedicated to extractors and was held by Master Gunsmith Ken Smith, a reputable expert on the matter. The course was open only to students which had previously completed the Handgun section of the organization’s coursework, because the information in the new course on extractors is reportedly a bit too advanced for beginners.

Since extractors are one of the most common problems with firearms and, the same time, one of the most common solutions to fixing their issues as well, the new course, titled ‘Extractors: Design, Function and Repair’ was a much needed entry to the institute’s curricula. The school, known by most gun aficionados and experts alike as the best American gunsmith institute, has previously released a vast coursework on all things related to gun use, gun repair, and even creative gunsmithing work. These courses are usually available for distance learning and help a lot of enthusiasts obtain a prestigious gunsmithing degree to start their career as pros without requiring them to change their location or incur a ton of debt. Also, the American Gunsmithing Institute cost per each course is very affordable. This naturally contributes to the institute’s reputation as no. 1 in the top list of gunsmithing schools.

The Extractors Gunsmithing Course Summary

The students who enrolled in the new course on extractors were mainly taught about how an extractor works, how its relationship to the ejector plays out and how to attach an extractor to various types of designs. In order to attend the course, the students needed to bring their own tools and materials to study on.

This is the list of firearms they needed:

• A 1911
• A Remington 700
• A rifle with a claw type of extractor (like a Mauser 98)
• A Ruger 10/22 or a Ruger Standard Auto or any .22 from Marlin’s series;
• A Remington 1100 or 870.

As for the tools the students needed to bring to the new course in order to maneuver the extractors, they were all part of the basic hand tools usually used for dissembling guns:

• A set of regular needle files
• A set of diamond needle files
• An American pattern file 6 inch bastard (and an 8 inch bastard as well)
• An additional 4 inch barrette file (or a 6 inch barrette file); this last part was optional for the lessons

All in all, the course held by the AGI this week could not have been more welcome to the courses already issued by the institute in the past years. The next good news for the gunsmithing enthusiasts all over the country would be to have the Extractors course be released as a DVD, so any aspiring gunsmith who couldn’t attend earlier in May can still benefit from the teachings of Master Ken Brooks. We’re also sure that the AGI will run the course again considering how successful it was.