I know this topic has been brought up from time to time and there are those who insist that it’s not necessary and “theirs have never come loose”.
Today I was conducting an inspection of AK47’s and some pistols that are going to purchased by a large security company that is still operating in Iraq. In that same container were metric assloads of M4geries made by DPMS.
Since I finished early I decided to take a look at them. There was a huge pile stacked on top of some carboard triwalls. Many of them were in various states of disrepair, etc… There were at least several dozens of them that had loose castle nuts and lower receiver extensions. Apaprently they didn’t have an armorer and no one who knew anything about staking the nut.
So then I went and looked at some of the ones that were recently turned in from sites the were demobing and had recently been in use by TCN guards and there were more than a few that had loose nuts and receiver extensions as well.
Even the weapons in the racks that were still in occasional use weren’t staked. Though many of these weapons were being carried and used, for the most part none of them were being run hard.
I just wanted to reiterate this point, because they will loosen. Even if you think that it is tight and it won’t or can’t happen I can guarantee it will. It simply doesn’t make sense to skip this step in the process.
I am curious as to where you would stake the castle nut? Can you post a pic of correct castle nut staking. I am unsure if mine is or where to look for it being staked.
As the castle nuts were not staked I would be curious to know if the carrier keys were in the same unstaked condition. Were you able to have a look at any of them?
In my first foray into the civilian AR world (Dec 2004) I had no knowledge of proper staking. I built my own lower, and of course, did not stake the castle nut.
During my first trip to the range, by the time I had fired 90 rounds (6.8 SPC) I discovered that the stock was distinctly toed inward. I assumed that it was simply not tight enough and proceeded to tighten that sucker down. Within a few months, with very little actual live fire, I noticed that it had again toed in.
Shortly after that, following dedicated self-education on the matter, I corrected my errors and that lower is still in my inventory. There is another odd side-note about it, but it is unrelated to proper assembly. If you want your carbine to be usable as more than a safe filler, it’s worth it to stake the castle nut. Takes all of 2 minutes to do right.
When I built the SBR I had a TROY QD end plate, I left it on for awhile before I shot it, then I decided to just go with the ASAP plate, Im already set up for it and its just easier.
I still wasnt sure if I wanted the QD endplate on or not so I didnt stake it.
I had the rifle at the range THREE times and the castlenut was loose.
The only part I dont like about the ASAP is you can only stake it in ONE place.
I would like two points to be staked just to be safe.
Funny you should mention that. They were lacking to say the least. Tomorrow I am going to bring my tools with me and for shits and giggles I am going to see how many I can break loose simply by holding them in my hand and twisting.
Yes it is important…Heck when I had my Olympic Arms. The damn nut would come loose just looking at it, no matter how much I cranked it tight.
It was frustrating either walking the land (25acres) or “Drilling” on the range out there it would always come loose…this was way before I use the internet and this forum as a resource.
Things are different now and it is staked on my new “build” (custom assembled).
More I learned about the AR the more I realized that most of these small but critical details were/are over looked by soo many that either “know” about the platform and even build them.
My brother, his son and I were going shooting a few weeks ago and I just so happened to tell him his YHM rifle wasn’t up to snuff. He said he hasn’t had any problems with it and he thought it would be OK.
About 40 rounds later his son asked me, “Uncle Frank, What’s wrong with our gun?” The Castle Nut had backed off and the buffer tube was very loose.
IG, with a loose Castle Nut, it seems it would be easy to break the Buffer Tube off at the threads or at least ruin the threads on the Tube or the Receiver.
What are some of the bad consequences you’ve seen from a loose Castle Nut??
Well one bad issue I had with mine is the buffer stop popped out during recoil cause the tube twisted a bit to much to hold the stop in place just enough for when recoil happend and the buffer came home there wasn’t a stop to stop it. SO the gun didn’t cycle correctly.
I had the stop and spring caught in the reciever areas and prevented bolt movement and the spring was down in the trigger group binding things up…I couldn’t fire again cause the triiger was bound by the spring. I knew when it happend somthing went wrong…sounded awfull.
The Buffer Retainer (which is what I think you’re referring) is only used when you open the upper/lower. The stop for the Buffer during normal operation is the BCG holding the Bolt closed.
I’d guess your issue was caused by the Retainer and Spring floating around gill-farting your action.
that’s was it…all I know is when I shot it. It made an awefull noise Probly the retainer moving with the bolt, and I heard parts moving around in it when I brought it off my shoulder. When I cracked it open the buffer sprung out, the retainer fell out, and the retainer spring was down in the FCG.
another thing to remember is to make sure the castle is fully tightened before staking. one of my customers had a bcm where the receiver extension was loose and yet the castle nut was staked. Easily corrected though.
Once you have decided on what endplate you want, you should install it properly and stake it. Here is an old pic of my SR-15 with noveske QD endplate. Or just stalk the factory endplate, it is on there tight.
