What is the proper barrel nut torque?

What is the proper torque on the barrel nut? I’ve searched pages and pages on the forum and didn’t come up with the answer. Also is it necessary to bed an 18 inch barrel?

My 18 inch build shoots the first shot dead on, second shot is 11 o’clock 1.5 high, third shot is 1 o’clock about 1.5 inches high, forth shot is back at 11 o’clock touching second shot.

Thanks,

EM

What is the proper torque on the barrel nut? I’ve searched pages and pages on the forum and didn’t come up with the answer. Also is it necessary to bed an 18 inch barrel?

My 18 inch build shoots the first shot dead on, second shot is 11 o’clock 1.5 high, third shot is 1 o’clock about 1.5 inches high, forth shot is back at 11 o’clock touching second shot.

Thanks,

EM

Barrel nut- torque is 30 - 80 ft lbs. You need to bed the barrel ext to upper and the gas block with loctite. You need to lube barrel nut with antisieze or A good grease(?). Tighten the barrel nut a little and back off. Tighten a little more and back off. and a third time tighten to 30ft lbs. Then tighten more to align the gas tube. I believe this is correct.

Good luck,
Terry

Barrel nut- torque is 30 - 80 ft lbs. You need to bed the barrel ext to upper and the gas block with loctite. You need to lube barrel nut with antisieze or A good grease(?). Tighten the barrel nut a little and back off. Tighten a little more and back off. and a third time tighten to 30ft lbs. Then tighten more to align the gas tube. I believe this is correct.

Good luck,
Terry

What he said :cool:

Barrel nut- torque is 30 - 80 ft lbs. You need to bed the barrel ext to upper and the gas block with loctite. You need to lube barrel nut with antisieze or A good grease(?). Tighten the barrel nut a little and back off. Tighten a little more and back off. and a third time tighten to 30ft lbs. Then tighten more to align the gas tube. I believe this is correct.

Good luck,
Terry
That's basically it. You can hand tighten then torque to the next gas tube hole. That's usually enough to give you minimum of the 30 ft/lbs.Then repeat as you stated but it might be more than 30 ft/lbs.
Greg

I go to 60lbs, just because.

I bed the extension into the receiver as well.

I never want anything to change, things happen at the worst times.

Remember when you torque three times you are mating the threads so that you do not get a false torque.

And make sure you have the upper held in the vise, not the barrel. If you hold the bbl in a vise and it takes a large amount of torque to align the holes, you can unscrew your bbl from the bbl extension.

Thanks for your help guys.

I tightened and loosened it three times and put about 60 lbs on it. I thought I had read a post some time back about it not being necessary to bed the shorter barrels therefore I didn’t bed it. I didn’t vise the barrel, I used a receiver block, also lubed the threads.


Found it: http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3816

It is the longer 20" and above barrels that demand loctite for consistancy. the 16" and 18" units shoot well as long as everything is tight.

Unless you clean the barrel between different ammunition types you will have problems. Nothing shoots worse than 123 Lapua Scenars after a few rounds of Noslers.

Bill Alexander

Thanks for your help guys.

I tightened and loosened it three times and put about 60 lbs on it. I thought I had read a post some time back about it not being necessary to bed the shorter barrels therefore I didn’t bed it. I didn’t vise the barrel, I used a receiver block, also lubed the threads.




You should be good to go..

You should be good to go..

No, I did that on the initial build. I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to tear it down and apply the Loctite.

No, I did that on the initial build. I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to tear it down and apply the Loctite.

Ok, misunderstood what you did. Thought you had it apart now..
Do you get those groups with all of your loads(if you shoot different bullets)? Free-floated fore end or stock hand guards?

Ok, misunderstood what you did. Thought you had it apart now..
Do you get those groups with all of your loads(if you shoot different bullets)? Free-floated fore end or stock hand guards?


The only ammo I have at this time is AA Lapua 123's and Wolf 120 MPT, it did the same with both loads. I have a YHM tube on it which may not have been tight enough.

I go to 60lbs, just because.

I bed the extension into the receiver as well.

I never want anything to change, things happen at the worst times.

Remember when you torque three times you are mating the threads so that you do not get a false torque.
I had a fairly long phone conversation with the man himself (Bill Alexander) when I was having some trouble with my Grendel. BTW Bill is a great guy and very hard to get off of the phone. In the conversation the subject of barrel nut torque came up. He told me that he torques 60-65 lbs and that if you go less than that you could be losing accuracy. The reason he said was the significantly higher recoil. He also told me that he designs his barrels to be a tighter fit in mil spec receivers to aid in accuracy.