Does castle nut timing matter for staking?

[TexanInCali]

I realize this may be a stupid question, but I'm a relative noob, so here goes. I have a VLTOR iMod buttstock kit that came with the stock, endplate, castle nut, mil-spec receiver extension, spring and a carbine buffer. It's not the A5, but just the iMod kit. I've since replaced the buffer with a BCM H buffer and the endplate with an IWC QD socket endplate. I've had the castle nut with loctite while I got the rifle set up the way I wanted it. Now, I want to stake the castle nut properly.

Everything is fine, but I have one nagging question. The castle nut has 4 slots on the aft side and 3 on the fore side. My understanding is that the the 3 smaller notches are for staking. In all the videos and instructions I've seen on staking the castle nut, one of the three notches is at the 12 o'clock position and they usually stake that one. On mine, the notches end up at the 2, 6 and 10 position. I've tried reinstalling it a few times to get them at 12, 4 and 8 like I've seen on other rifles, but they always come out at 2, 6 and 10. This doesn't seem like it should matter, but I don't know. It seems to me that simply staking the notches at 10 and 2 position should be fine. Is there some reason this would be a problem?

Thanks,
T

[seabyrd6]

Hey- NEVER have heard anything about the timing of that NUT.

[Zim]

I just did three A5's back to back, with three castle nuts from two vendors (one from VLTOR was out of spec), and the two from VLTOR came out identical while the third one had different timing. All three torqued down while in a vice and staked, and no problems so far. Sometimes they just don't line up perfectly, but it should be fine if you can get them staked.

[Iraqgunz]

Doesn't matter at all. You should only be able to stake it in 2 places. If one if those notches is directly at 12 then you will most likely not be able to stake the others from what I have seen.

[TexanInCali]

Thanks for the confirmation.

[ColtSeavers]

The only time it might matter is if for some bizarre reason one chose to reuse the same end plate after switching out parts and you'd then need to stake a different part of the end plate. Not saying I either recommend or indulge in this practice, have only read of others doing so.

[Grand58742]

Kinda surprised nobody mentioned the Loc-tite.

Not necessary to use if you are staking. Especially the red.

[TexanInCali]

The loctite was only on there while I got the rifle set up how I wanted it. I knew I'd be changing the endplate eventually, so I just used loctite. That's been removed. I don't intend to use any when I stake it.