Greetings again, all. Wow, I am so glad to have had a chance to learn from some seriously experienced people. I can't tell everyone how much I appreciate the expertise. 12Bravo20 and flightsimmer - you all gave me the stimulus to go ahead and dive in a little deeper. Glad I did. I took the steps, thanks to flightsimmer's "push" to go ahead and just remove the extractor. You are so right - easy as could be! Before doing so, I pushed on it and it did move easily on the pin, so then I took it out. Yes, there was some gunk in there, but not really bad. I cleaned it thoroughly. But I think this may help me (with some help of folks here) to nail this down. Having the extractor out, I cleaned it up and took some pictures, which I've posted here.
Please let me throw in the caveat - this is the first Star I've owned, the second (next to my Ruger Mark II, a different animal) automatic pistol. I'm mostly an old fashioned bolt action rifle guy. So, I have no idea what a Star BM extractor in good shape is supposed to look like, and I admit it! That's why I'm hoping someone will see this pix and tell me "that's what mine looks like and mine works fine," or "man, you need to find a new extractor, that thing's worn/damaged/defective/broken, etc." What struck me is how one corner of it doesn't look like the other (reminder, I don't know what it's SUPPOSED to look like!); it's rounded off. Was it designed that way (the rounded edge is the lower edge, where the case would ride up under it; is it rounded to make the case run up under it)? Or is that lower corner worn, so now it's not grabbing the case fully, leading to the failure to EXTRACT?
I guess it comes down to (and I think I can guess the answer) as to whether this design is like a Mauser controlled feed (the case rim has to role up underneath the extractor) or a push feed? If it's a push feed (which the spring design leads me to believe), then I'm suspicious that that rounded off corner is causing a problem.
Can anyone guide me on this? MANY thanks!