Can carriers be matched up with a manufacturer based on how they look?

I have an RRA carrier and an unkown carrier that might be mixed up.

On one carrier, the ver back circular piece is about 3/8" thick, the other one is more like 3/4" thick.

One of them has the edges of the metal crimped down against the bolts on the gas key, the other has what looks like a weld mark almost that pushes a hole down into the carrier and distributes metal over the bolts, to keep them from rotating.

Sorry about the poor explanations, I will try to ge t pictures up.

thanks in advance

Sounds like you have a RRA enhanced carrier and a standard carrier. The RRA should be the one that is full-circle at the rear for 3/4-1".

A standard AR carrier is only full-circle for 1/2" or so(very close to your 3/8" guess, so this might be it)

Hope this helps a little.

WIZZO

Quoted: Sounds like you have a RRA enhanced carrier and a standard carrier. The RRA should be the one that is full-circle at the rear for 3/4-1". A standard AR carrier is only full-circle for 1/2" or so(very close to your 3/8" guess, so this might be it) Hope this helps a little. WIZZO

So the standard carrier is just that, standard, and you can't differentiate between manufacturer's?

I'm trying to figure out th mfr of my upper...

If you're trying to find the manufacturer of a complete upper, that's a different story. More manufacturers sre using the enhanced carriers nowadays.

RRA barrels are marked with a letter, a number, and another letter on top of the chamber right below the gas tube. If you see those markings, you at least have a Wilson barrel that was made for RRA.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions, or if I'm not understanding you completely.

WIZZO