The barrel extends via a mechanism built into the gun box, activated by a green lever that sticks out from between the gun body and the trigger box, seen here: http://www.gbfans.com/images/equipment/reference/6/10.jpg Close-up http://www.gbfans.com/images/equipment/reference/6/3.jpg The exact mechanism isn't known, but "Playskool", one of our very skilled builders, devised a mechanism that most would assume the original worked very similarly. Another member here, PeteVenkmanJedi, copied this mechanism, as seen in pictures here: http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1956&p=15032&hilit=barrel+extension#p15032
