I only have 2 Parkers and neither one has relief cuts on the extractors. 1897 GH and 1917 VH

I put a little more thought into it Garth, and if the gun wouldn't open fully because the extractor became hung up on the tips of the firing pins (tumbler tips) forcing it to open could cause such chips. I've had certain Parkers that experienced this very situation.






.

It is not damage in my belief; rather it was done at the factory. Notice how uniform the cuts are. The fitter made those cuts at the factory to clear the extractors. They are perfect cuts. That is why the hammer pins are not butchered, which they would have been from constant dragging on the extractor. No need to file.

Thanks Dean, I just fired some snap caps and opened the gun to see if the pins were hanging on the extractor. The tumblers did their job and retracted the firing pins all the way back into the frame so there is no contact with the extractor and all appears normal.

Right after I got this gun Brian Dudley did an ultrasonic cleaning and I wonder if that cleaning resolved the problem of the pins not retracting back into the frame. This restocked 16ga O frame is a wonderful little gun and the only work I'm planning to have done is to have the damascus barrels refinished.

The extractor cleanse cuts are something that are a hold over from the hammer guns and early hammerless guns.

The first hammerless guns did not have rebounding hammers. Along with some other things inside the action, they also put these small cleanse cuts in the extractor to make sure that it would clear the pins when opening.

After rebounding hammers were implemented in the hammerless guns, the extractor guns remained for some years. Garth, your later guns do not have them due to this. They were phased out in the early 1890s.

I have a PP article in the works that deals with this very topic in detail.

And here I thought only the 1873 Remington hammer lifter gun was made without rebounding hammers. The 75 model had rebounding hammers. I've owned a number of Parker Lifters, and they all had rebounding hammers. It's easy to see they aren't chips, but put in when the gun was made. I would think in case the firing pins were stuck the gun would open without damage to the pins. Good idea.