Note for above: The ‘smooth screws’ to which I am referring are the either ‘smooth head’ cap screws or the ones with very shallow knurling ridges found frequently on gas keys.

OCKs stands for ‘Optimized Carrier Key Screws’. The OKCS screw has sharp, deep, and effective knurling with 12 deeper splines. This allows for metal to flow into the sharp, deep, knurling of the OKCs when staking, This creates more metal on metal contact thus a more secure screw instead of basically resting against the metal with the ‘smooth screws’ with very little in-between ridge metal for the ones with shallow knurling.

That’s attention to ‘reliability detail’. OCKs screws are less likely to loosen (i.e. practically impossible to ‘self loosen’ from vibration forces on their own over time, remember, the BCG is slamming back and forth a lot) after staked properly because the metal deforms into the ridges on the screws, unlike the others where the screw heads are smooth. Its a key ‘failure’ and ‘hard to diagnose failure’ point in AR’s – the smooth screws loosen a little over time, ever so slightly, as the smooth surface of the screw heads ‘slips’ in the metal staking and you end up with a gas leak from under the gas key – leading to random odd problems happening like, for example, a FTE for certain grades/brands of ammo.

For example – just one example as the issue can manifest in different ways: A lot of people with suppressors or firing hotter match loads, with ‘smooth’ head screws on their BCG’s experience these ‘random issues’ and don’t realize it so they change the BCG out and the problem seems to go away. So they blame the BCG as being junk when in reality the BCG/bolt are fine and all they needed to do was get a new gas key and some OCKs screws, seal the key surface with some green loctite or gasket sealant, and torque to value then stake properly instead of spending a lot more, or more extra, money on a new BCG. The higher back-pressure of a suppressor or the higher pressure gas from match loads will cause it to happen where normal target loads don’t – it could be a sign that the screws are loosening by the smooth head of the screw slipping past the staking just enough that under the increased pressure the gas leaks from the bottom of the gas key where it meets the BCG. And sure, it could also be that the screws were not torqued to the proper value, or the staking wasn’t properly done, or the bottom of the carrier key was not actually flat and smooth, but the top of the list for BCG’s with gas key smooth head screws that are properly staked is the screws are loosening by the smooth head of the screw slipping past the staking just enough. OCKs screws address this and increase reliability.