On loose carrier key screws

[Straight Shooter]

Bumping to the top because, I was troubleshooting a gun (not my own). In addition to the barrel nut not being torqued correctly, castle nut being un-staked, flash-hider being grossly undersized, H0 buffer, gas block just about touching the handguard, the chamber being .223, but marked 5.56, no dry lube, slightly off-center gas port, and some other things, it had inadequately torqued Chinese screws with virtually un-knurled, nearly smooth diameters with otherwise great staking.

Ned, order is inbound.

Edit; I’ll prolly grab some from FCD.

Just yesterday brought home my 20" SPR from the smith. I used a Young MFG NM Bolt Carrier with a BCM bolt. I had him remove the chink screws, and re-do with OCKS...and then STAKE them. Ive talked with Mr. Young on the phone, he does NOT like it when people question him about his screws or lack of staking. So, I just had it done while my rifle was being built. The smith didnt even charge for it.
Also- 1168..may I ask as to the manufacturer of the piece you were working on?

[1168]

Just yesterday brought home my 20" SPR from the smith. I used a Young MFG NM Bolt Carrier with a BCM bolt. I had him remove the chink screws, and re-do with OCKS...and then STAKE them. Ive talked with Mr. Young on the phone, he does NOT like it when people question him about his screws or lack of staking. So, I just had it done while my rifle was being built. The smith didnt even charge for it.
Also- 1168..may I ask as to the manufacturer of the piece you were working on?

He bought it secondhand. I say secondhand rather than used, because it doesn’t appear to have been shot much. Receiver is a PSA, but is marked “multi” for caliber, and the barrel does not appear to be PSA. Thats the only logo on any part. So its probably a gun-show parts mutt assembled on a stripped lower.

BCG is marked MPI on the bolt with white lettering, not electropenciled. No idea who made it.

You get what you pay for.

[Straight Shooter]

He bought it secondhand. I say secondhand rather than used, because it doesn’t appear to have been shot much. Receiver is a PSA, but is marked “multi” for caliber, and the barrel does not appear to be PSA. Thats the only logo on any part. So its probably a gun-show parts mutt assembled on a stripped lower.

BCG is marked MPI on the bolt with white lettering, not electropenciled. No idea who made it.

You get what you pay for.

Thank you brother, and amen.

[Duffy]

I'm very happy to see Ned's OCKS being used by more manufacturers than my last post in 2018, I hope we have done our part in extolling its virtues. We do this with products we believe and use. Ned's OCKS and Vltor's A5 are two of the very best examples, we push these products for the end user's benefit, and would do the same if we didn't carry and use them ourselves.

[Ned Christiansen]

This week I delivered another of my hydraulic staking machines. The rate on these is >850 carriers / hour. I mean, "cyclic" is about 1100-1200 but you have to allow for moving boxes around, breaks, etc. I have eight or nine of them in use now... I think the state of carrier key staking across the industry is going up but there are some holdouts. I'm surprised how poorly some continue to do it.... well, mildly surprised.

From Tuesday's test run:

[Vegas]

A thing of beauty. Are you able to say who uses your equipment?

[AndyLate]

That is (conservatively) a million + bolt carriers per year. Are any of your customers even close to that kind of volume?

Andy

[hotrodder636]

That’s some volume/rate!

This week I delivered another of my hydraulic staking machines. The rate on these is >850 carriers / hour. I mean, "cyclic" is about 1100-1200 but you have to allow for moving boxes around, breaks, etc. I have eight or nine of them in use now... I think the state of carrier key staking across the industry is going up but there are some holdouts. I'm surprised how poorly some continue to do it.... well, mildly surprised.

From Tuesday's test run:

[Ned Christiansen]

Nobody ever told me not to say or had me sign NDA's but to me it's an unwritten thing and not necessary to discuss even, so..... not gonna say. "Places that care about doing it right", that's one way of saying it. :-)

I will say that volumes are in the tens and tens and tens of thousands a year, into the hundreds of thousands, but not up to a million-- as far as I know..... but then I honestly don't have hard info on production numbers. I will say some places have more than one.

[AndyLate]

Nobody ever told me not to say or had me sign NDA's but to me it's an unwritten thing and not necessary to discuss even, so..... not gonna say. "Places that care about doing it right", that's one way of saying it. :-)

I will say that volumes are in the tens and tens and tens of thousands a year, into the hundreds of thousands, but not up to a million-- as far as I know..... but then I honestly don't have hard info on production numbers. I will say some places have more than one.

Thank you. Its honestly encouraging to know that the industry continues to improve their products and that folks like yourself continue to innovate and develop the technology to make the improvements happen.

Andy