Metzger
Well-Known Member
I am having a barrel spun up for me with a wrench flat on the end to tighten. I was thinking of just having them do away with the wrench flat and screw on hand tight. Does this affect accuracy?
I am having a barrel spun up for me with a wrench flat on the end to tighten. I was thinking of just having them do away with the wrench flat and screw on hand tight. Does this affect accuracy?
It depends on your goal. Yes there are folks that hand tighten, I've heard of some bench resters doing this. However, the chamber should be headspace for this method. Some actions are designed to be hand tightened. But like mentioned the ones designed for this also have the set screws, ala zeus, vector, AI. I was talking to a shooter over the weekend that used a vector and decided to use a barrel set up for hand tightening as a normal torqued in barrel. He said he lost .002 in head space. He said he didn't get the predictability that he was looking for and also had issues striping the set screws even when used recommended torque, so he went back to regular.
I'd keep the wrench flat and then keep a torque wrench and crows foot in your kit, so you can be sure to put the barrel back on to the same torque, even if that is only 35 ftlbs or so.
If you want consistent results, You should have some system that is repeatable. You don't "Have to" torke the barrel down to 65 Ft/lbs + if you keep an eye on the tightness and don't wait until it gets lose to re tighten it. In order to remain consistently made up, some torque is needed.
If you want to be able to switch barrels by hand, Your original idea of a hand wrench and barrel nut with flats on it was a good one and is the best way to achieve consistent performance short of torquing in my opinion.
J E CUSTOM