Bull Barrels?

[Toestr]

I have a couple and I find it curious that they leave the bore and threads raw. I assume it has something to do with the manufacturing process? Were they not able to properly tolerance the threads for anno?

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[DocsMachine]

Those barrels date back to the early days of the sport, which is also a time when most markers- 'Cockers included- were made in what were really little more than garage shops.

Anodizing changes dimensions slightly, and I'm sure that some makers were a little leery of turning a bunch of threads, having the part anodized, and then not having them fit right, due to the change in tolerance.

Either that or the thought was to leave the threads "soft" on the barrel, but anodized on the body, so if something is going to wear, it'll be the easily-replaced barrel, and not the more expensive body.

Both of those are kind of guesses, but at least semi-educated ones.

On the bore, I suspect the idea there was that the anodized bore wouldn't be as smooth, so it was left bare, intending to be honed or even polished later. (The "big trick" in those early days was to use rouge polishing compounds to buff the bore of your 007 or PMI brass, to a bright, polished finish.)

As both the state of the actual technology improved (garage shops moved to CNC job shops and eventually to modern production shops with proper turning centers, etc.) and our knowledge of what works and what doesn't for the paintball guns, we started anodizing the whole barrel, polishing first, then anodizing, etc.

That said, in some cases, for example early LAPCOs, the threads came unanodized, because they turned and annoed a big batch of blanks, and only turned the specific threads afterward. 'Cocker and old Shocker, for example, were very close to the same overall specs, with just a difference in thread pitch and count. Ditto Spyder, and one or two others.

LAPCO too, dropped that a good while back, in no small part simply because of the general industry consolidating of barrel threads in general. (Instead of dozens of different styles, we're down to what, half a dozen common ones, and two or three others that most shops don't even bother producing anymore? (Like Ion.)

Doc.

[maggot]

That said, in some cases, for example early LAPCOs, the threads came unanodized, because they turned and annoed a big batch of blanks, and only turned the specific threads afterward. 'Cocker and old Shocker, for example, were very close to the same overall specs, with just a difference in thread pitch and count. Ditto Spyder, and one or two others.

This was exactly my assumption, that the threads and sometimes the bore were raw because it was easier to ano one big length of bar stock (or even just source it that way). Cut off a section, thread it and bore it.