I just got a Geissele hand guard that is now called 7 inch, but Geissele used to call them 7.25 inches.

Seeing a Geissele 8 inch barrel in them, it looks like 7.5 inches might be a bit short, but I'm not going to suppress, so that may be alright.

The two barrels I'm looking at are the 7.5 inch Bear Creek and the 8 inch KAK barrels.

I might just get both to see which one I like.

Does anybody have any experience with either one of these barrels?

How well do extractors hold up with them?

I only use brass cases, so I haven't experienced early extractor failures yet, in my 16 inch barrels.

Steel cases seem to cause trouble with 5.56 and 308 AR's, so I'm not risking using them in 7.62x39, with even thinner extractors.

These days brass cases seem more available than old steel cases anyway.

I see several companies, like BCM, recommend extra extractor spring coils, inserts and o-rings with pistol length gas systems with 300 Blackout, so I can imagine the shorter gas system in 7.62x39 is going to stress the extractor more, or at least require some extra spring coil and / or insert and o-ring installed.