Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but i'm dealing with an issue one one of these.
Got it in a box lot from the buy & sell area. Its a great lock, good condition and all and the key works great. But it's one of 4 padlocks I haven't been able to open yet, (the other 3 being combo locks) I quickly figured out that it was all spooled (and later confirmed that as you'll see) but it felt... just weird. Normally with spools I will get the indicative counter rotation on applying pressure, these felt solid as anything, and even with feather light pressure I was scared I'd break my pick every time I put enough pressure on it to move it past the 'hard stop' to set them. I worked on it off and on for 3 days now and tonight a solid 2 hours of strange and not normal feeling before I finally gave up and took the lock apart. This is what I found:

Now, I've seen these groves milled in the spring/pin housing before, but not typically on production locks.
Whats more, if you'll notice the groove is deeper, and thus wider near the plug. Wide enough for a pin to catch there. As well as the springs and pins catching on the rough inner lip of the cut. It seems to make it neigh impossible for me to pick as its always hitting the casing and stopping rather then setting. For some reason it dosent do this with the key. Am I just being a unskilled whiner with my ego bruised

or is this unusual? And in either case, how would I go about picking it?
Many thanks,
-Alden