How tight should a barrel nut be?

[SWshooter]

Does anyone have any info on how tight a barrel nut should be, or any way to tune for accuracy? I pulled the barrel off my LR-308 and thought it was quite loose. I reinstalled it and gained two holes in the float tube barrel nut. I had this barrel recontoured by ADCO and haven't been happy with the accuracy. I'll try and shoot it tomorrow, if the rain stops.

[imschur]

same as an AR-15 35-80ft lbs

[Matt.Cross]

same as an AR-15 35-80ft lbs

That is exactly what DPMS recommends for the .308, straight from their shop personnel.

When installing aftermarket float tubes, the manufacturers sometimes recommend using a stainless brush to remove the teflon from the receiver threads before replacing the float tube nut. That may help you gain a slightly better foothold in final holding ability. Also remember that the stock FFT was loctited when it shipped out.

[SWshooter]

I shot six five shot groups with two types of ammo. They all went between 1 1/4 to 2". I'm going to load some 168 match bullets tonight and shoot it again tomorrow. The barrel nut couldn't have been much tighter than 35 ft lb, it came loose with very little effort. I had to loosen and tighten it a couple times to get a hole to line up at what I thought was tight enough to prevent the barrel from moving. It had some kind of red grease or anti-seize on the barrel threads so I left it there. I wrapped a layer of cardboard around the float tube and tightened it with a chain wrench, it's tight now <thumbsup>

[TacBlade]

This is an old post, but there is a strap wrench made from rubber that works just like the chain wrench you mentioned.  You can get one that is sold for guns out of Brownells or you can go to Sears and get the same thing, but is sold to loosen stuff like oil filters. They both are made the same way, but way better than and not so scarry as the Chain Wrench!

[Rifleloon]

This is an old post, but there is a strap wrench made from rubber that works just like the chain wrench you mentioned.  You can get one that is sold for guns out of Brownells or you can go to Sears and get the same thing, but is sold to loosen stuff like oil filters. They both are made the same way, but way better than and not so scarry as the Chain Wrench!

I snapped one of those from sears taking off a free float tube. The rubber ones are junk IMHO