Hey guys. A couple of days ago, I installed a Colt LE6920 SOCOM barrel on a Mega Arms forged, stripped upper receiver. I used the factory Colt Barrel Nut, lubed the receiver threads with Aeroshell 33MS, and torqued the barrel nut to 30 ft/lbs using a Geissele Reaction Rod, Magpul Armorer's wrench and Craftsman torque wrench. I loosened the nut and re-torqued 3 times to seat the threads (and inspected the upper receiver indexing notch each time). Each time was to 30 ft/lbs. To my amazement, after the Barrel Nut was tightened to 30 ft/lbs 3 times, I found that it was PERFECTLY indexed with the gas tube opening in the upper receiver. My barrel nut alignment tool from SAW is out for delivery as I type this, but in the mean time, I used a new gas tube to verify the alignment, and sure enough, the indexing is good and the tube is straight in the upper receiver channel.
My question is: Is the barrel nut good to go AT 30 ft/lbs? I understand the range is 30-80 ft/lbs, primarily to allow for further rotation of the Barrel Nut to properly index the teeth for the Gas Tube. I'm not sure if it would take the full 80 ft/lbs to tighten it to the next "tooth" (a full tooth of rotation), but I really don't want to do it if the nut is good to go at 30 ft/lbs. I have not pinned the gas tube, and will triple verify alignment with the alignment tool and Carrier tonight. Thanks in advance for reading and for the advice!
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