Sorry I won't have real pics... Enjoy my artistry with Paint.
Background InfoOne of the L96's major flaws is its outer barrel. It can wiggle and rotate pretty easily, meaning overall inconsistency, considering how both the hop up chamber and inner barrel are both inside of it. In the Type-10's, the outer barrel is secured via the hop up block. A screw goes through the stock into the hop up block which is connected to the outer barrel. This prevents the outer barrel form rotating or wiggling. In the APS SR2 (E1 ASR), the outer barrel is secured with a clamp around it preventing wiggle and rotation.
However, in the L96, the only thing keeping the outer barrel from rotating and wiggling is a tiny grub screw on the underside of the receiver, which for me, comes loose very frequently and results in the outer barrel wiggling and veering shots. In fact, in the original Maruzen L96, there is NO grub screw (so I've heard). This problem has been pretty frequent in us L96 users and there haven't been solutions until now.
One VERY important detail that must be done first is to tighten the mag catch/hop up screw very tightly. If that is screw is loose, then, even though the mag catch/hop up chamber won't be wiggling (the mag catch is directly attached to the hop up chamber), the outer barrel will wiggle. That means the spacers inside your gun will twist with it, and the inner barrel will start to misalign. So TIGHTEN THE SCREW INSIDE OF THE MAG CATCH.
Side note: If you own a Well MB04 (G-22) or Cybergun/Mauser Pro Tactical, this mod will also work for your gun, considering how those guns are basically L96's mounted to an adjustable stock.
Oh, and if you haven't noticed, I will be mentioning something called a
MAG CATCH very often in this thread. If you don't know what that is:
Logic behind this modSo, seeing that the grub screw on the underside of the receiver really does no use, I looked for a better way to prevent the outer barrel from rotating. One thing obviously noticed is that, with the L96 was fully assembled, the outer barrel could be pretty easily rotated by hand. The reason this is bad is because of the hop up. If the hop up chamber is slightly off line, the backspin applied on the bb won't be perfect and the bb could have a bit of side spin, similar to if you shot an airsoft gun (with hop up) with the gun turned sideways, the bb will curve left or right. So with application of logic, the wiggly outer barrel will result in plentiful inconsistency.
Aha! A Mag Catch!So, I looked around the gun to see if there was anything I could apply to fix this wobble. I thought of maybe threadlocking the outer barrel threads that connect it to the receiver, yet the outer barrel could still wobble up and down. I thought of maybe drilling and applying a screw through the stock into the outer barrel, which was rejected by users on the forum.
So after rotating the outer barrel around by hand and looking around the gun, I noticed the mag catch would actually rotate WITH the outer barrel, even though the mag catch is inside of the stock. So basically, with more application of logic, I thought "So, if the outer barrel rotates, the mag catch rotates.... So if the mag catch STOPS rotating, then
so does the outer barrel." It was a spark of inspiration. I realized my objective. It was to prevent the mag catch from rotating.
You Gotta Start SmallThe reason the mag catch could wiggle was because, inside of the stock, the mag catch had space on the left and right sides, so it could move up and down. So, to fix this, (it should be obvious enough) you gotta fill the empty space? So, I started small. I tried tape. I used some regular plastic Invisible Tape, because Electric tape has too much friction and will deform when you put it in. I just put some invisible tape on the left and right sides of the mag catch.
lol
I chose Invisible tape because of it's smooth non-sticky side, so it wouldn't rip or deform once I slid the upper receiver/outer barrel into the stock. So, once I slid it in, there was still some wiggle. So added some more tape, and it wouldn't fit into the stock. So, I took off a little bit, and, just like the third bowl of porridge, chair, and bed, it was juuuuuust right. Voila, no more rotation.
No additional use intendedAfter going out for a shooting test, I saw much more consistency to my shots. Yes, yes. Now, instead of my shots curving left and right, my shots would only curve right. Hey, not bad. Not only that, the bb's would curve to the right exactly the same amount (I have an SCS installed inside of my stock hop up along with a shim on the top of the hop up arm for extra strength and rigidity).
So I thought, "I guess my chamber is misaligned. I bet if I mess around with the amount of tape I apply to each side of the mag catch, I can align it just right." So, I started to remove tape on the left side of the mag catch and apply the same amount to the right. After a bit of tuning, I had just the right amount of tape on each side. I had most of the tape on the left side of the mag catch with a little bit of tape on the right. This basically repositioned the mag catch, which also repositioned the outer barrel and repositioned the hop up chamber. The chamber was then aligned vertically, and the bb's stopped curving.
Not only did taping the mag catch stop the outer barrel and hop up chamber from rotating around, it also could be fine tuned so the chamber would be aligned just perfectly to where it would apply perfect backspin with no sidespin.
New TechnologySo after a few tear downs and rebuilds, the Invisible tape would sometimes rip or peel off from moisture, and I realized that the tape wouldn't cut it. And so I evolved and turned to more advanced technology, JB Weld. The JB Weld has a bit more friction but won't rip or tear or deform, so the friction of it should take care of the up and down wobble, along with the rotation.
The great thing is, you can file this down, so don't be afraid to add too much. This is a relatively simple mod that can yield amazing results.
Finally, the Directions1. This step is sort of like laying down the stakes in a construction site. It will help you figure out how much you should add. Basically, add Invisible Tape to each side of the mag catch. If your gun naturally curves right, you'll want to rotate the outer barrel to counter clockwise, so to do this, you'll want to add more tape to the LEFT side of the mag catch and less on the right. You'll also want to add just enough so the outer barrel won't wiggle.
*NOTE: I know Invisible tape is a bit wide compared to the sides of the mag catch. What I did was I would just tear out a length of tape that was the same length as the mag catch, and then I'd cut the width into thirds with scissors (halves are still a bit too big. I find that thirds are just perfect).
**HINT: Having LESS tape towards the BOTTOM of the mag catch (are furthest away from the end of the catch with the screw) makes it easier for the taped mag catch to slide in without ripping out the tape.
2. Once you have the tape layed out, you'll want to take some of the tape off and add about the same amount of JB Weld as you did with tape. The way I did it was I peeled a bit of the tape off, but not all of it, cut off a little bit of it, and just put JB Weld where the tape used to be, keeping the remaining tape there as referance to how much to apply.
-IMPORTANT: Let the JB Weld dry before you put it into your gun. Should be common sense.
3. Once the JB Weld has dryed, test it out in your gun. If it's a bit wobbly still, just repeat the process (Tape, Peel, Cut, Apply JB Weld). If the upper receiver won't even fit into the stock, then just take a file or sandpaper and just file/sand down the JB Weld. Try to sand/file down equal amounts on both sides so you don't mess with your tuning.
The most important part that must be "shimmed" (applied Tape/JBW) is the upper part of the mag catch because that is the thinnest area in the stock, so that space MUST be filled. Every other space is less important, and in fact, if you don't shim that upper part, the outer barrel will still be able to wiggle. In fact, in my gun, I don't even have the lower part shimmed (because it fell off); just the upper part, and there is 0 wiggle:
Important hints and tips-One thing you will want to do is sort of "taper" the JB weld. You want less towards the bottom and more towards the top reciever end. If you have too much on the bottom, the JB Weld will either just rip off when you try to put the reciever/outer barrel into the stock, or it just plain won't fit.
-Make sure not to get any JB Weld in the gap between the mag catch and the outer barrel, or else the mag catch will be welded to the barrel and you won't be able to remove it.
Good job sonAnd you're done! The good thing about this mod is that it isn't permanent. You can still remove the mag catch from the outer barrel/hop up chamber, you can still put magazines in just fine, and you can even just plain remove it if one day your gun decides to shoot left or something weird.
Questions or Comments?
