Point of twist lock left/right blocker?

[IPR Steve]

I have an old AA twist lock barrel that I bought recently and it has left and right feed paths cut for the lock pin, but one is blocked on the end. This makes it only usable on left feed mags (mine's right).

I came across an old post that mentioned this "feature" on the minimag barrels. Sure enough, I looked and found that my original minimag barrel has the left feed path blocked.

Does anybody know what the point is? Were barrels originally sold as left-only and right-only? Is it common to have to Dremel out these things?

Here are a few pictures of what I'm talking about for reference:

http://www.ephemeral.org/mag_barrel_blocked_right_feed.png

http://www.ephemeral.org/mag_barrel_blocked_right_feed2.png

[BiNumber3]

That should be an easy fix, u can use a dremel, file, or even needle nose pliers, assuming the rest of the groove is cut properly.

[Ando]

That's normal. I had a few barrels like that. I actually just got a trade with a barrel like that. Just find something to remove that last little part and you'll be good.

[factoid]

They used to do that on some barrels so you couldn't accidentally put it in the wrong way, but it would still be there for anyone that really needed it. You can easily file away the extra material...the very opening of the twist lock doesn't need to be super clean or perfect. You can do it with a hand file if you want, just smooth the rough edges so you don't scratch your body up.

[Thotograph]

I think they made it with speed in mind, especially on the minimag barrel since there wasn't much to index off of since it was straight smooth. That way you'd find the groove when you had to do a quick in game cleaning. Personally I love using twist lock barrels, my RT is still one of my favorite guns.

[Spider-TW]

Like factoid said, it was not finished out to keep people from installing it wrong. Mags started out with right side feeds and went to hopper left power feeds, which still had the port on the right side. When they started making some hopper right power feeds, they made the extra grooves but left that last bit to keep the larger market from getting crossed up. Then came a few twistlock centerfeeds and now you have to be careful buying twistlock barrels altogether. After you put a twistlock barrel in so that paint can't get in the marker, you'll know why they did that. :)

It's the same concept as some of the ASA holes in the old rails. When the minimag came out, they made one rail for both AM and MM. The holes for the back bottle adapter and the vert ASA were both left with the very bottom un-drilled. Depending on which ASA you were going to use, you could run a drill bit (almost by hand) through the bottom of the hole and it was ready.

[factoid]

Like factoid said, it was not finished out to keep people from installing it wrong. Mags started out with right side feeds and went to hopper left power feeds, which still had the port on the right side. When they started making some hopper right power feeds, they made the extra grooves but left that last bit to keep the larger market from getting crossed up. Then came a few twistlock centerfeeds and now you have to be careful buying twistlock barrels altogether. After you put a twistlock barrel in so that paint can't get in the marker, you'll know why they did that. :)

It's the same concept as some of the ASA holes in the old rails. When the minimag came out, they made one rail for both AM and MM. The holes for the back bottle adapter and the vert ASA were both left with the very bottom un-drilled. Depending on which ASA you were going to use, you could run a drill bit (almost by hand) through the bottom of the hole and it was ready.

Yep. My original barrel for my powerfeed mag had both slots open fully. We always had crappy paint back in the day so I got chops and barrel breaks pretty regularly and I was always stripping the barrel to clean it and putting it in wrong.

Eventually I plugged that slot up with epoxy so it wouldn't happen anymore. The barrel I got to replace that one has this extra blocking groove, which I appreciated.

[shadowset]

they set them up that way so upon ordering the barrel they give it a quick notching to finish it off on the one that you need based on ordering what it does is allows them to keep both in stock and in full supply so they don't run low or out of one before the other . it would sound like it adds more work for them but same time helps so they can send out the proper one no matter what and always have plenty in stock . use a mag and always shoot straight