How important is ring torque

[blacklab1]

I put together 2 new rifles for hunting this year and both have Leupold VX-5 on them with Vortex pro rings. I sighted them in at 100 yards and everything was fine but I haven’t had time to check tracking on them yet. Tonight I was playing with a different rifle mounting a different scope and something seemed off. After screwing around for awhile I figured out my one torque wrench shit the bed. I got a different one and decided to check the 2 VX-5’s that I mounted earlier and sure enough they were torqued to around 45-50 in lbs. I re-torqued then to 20 in lbs but I’m wondering if I did any damage, I doubt I’ll have time to check them until next weekend. Anyone else ever do this and what was the outcome?

 

[Mike Casselton]

Did you use the torque wrench to loosen the screws?

If so, that's your problem. It takes a lot more force to loosen a bolt that's already torqued

 

[blacklab1]

Did you use the torque wrench to loosen the screws?

If so, that's your problem. It takes a lot more force to loosen a bolt that's already torqued

No, I started at 20 lbs and went up in 2 lb increments until the wrench clicked. They were a little over 45lbs.

 

[hlee]

Scopes, in general, are a lot more robust that they were in the past. If the scope isn’t visibly damaged, and it still tracks/zooms/focuses/etc ok, then it is probably fine.

But, Leupold has pretty good CS (at least that has been my experience). You could call them if you have concerns.

 

[Baron23]

they were torqued to around 45-50 in lbs.

Run your parallax, elevation, and windage and see if there is any binding. If not, then you are probably ok IME.

 

[Mike Casselton]

No, I started at 20 lbs and went up in 2 lb increments until the wrench clicked. They were a little over 45lbs.

That's not an accurate way to measure the previous torque.

It's not much different than loosening and measuring at the same time.
It takes a lot more torque to move the screw once it's stopped rotating.


If you've ever pushed a car or truck, you know it takes double the effort to get it moving. Once it's moving the effort to keep it moving is not that high.
Add in a slight incline and it's like coming up on your torque setting.

 

[TonyAngel]

I've seen similar things happen. If there was any damage, I think there would be some evidence of the tube buckling. This would manifest itself in the form of minute ridges forming where the ring was. You may or may not be able to see them, but you can feel them. Just run your fingers around the circumference of the scope tube. If you can feel ridges, there was some buckling. This doesn't necessarily mean that the scope wont work though.

 

[carbonbased]

The myth of trying to determine current bolt tightness by either loosening or tightening with a torque wrench (linked to timestamp)


Btw only certain torque wrenches are ok to use when loosening. Many types’ accuracy is degraded by loosening. See:


For interest, here is part 1


For the above vids, the author put timestamp shortcuts in the video description.

 

[blacklab1]

The myth of trying to determine current bolt tightness by either loosening or tightening with a torque wrench (linked to timestamp)


Btw only certain torque wrenches are ok to use when loosening. Many types’ accuracy is degraded by loosening. See:


For interest, here is part 1


For the above vids, the author put timestamp shortcuts in the video description.

Very informative, thank you.

 

[carbonbased]

Very informative, thank you.

I forget this stuff quickly. I need to bookmark them!

 

[blacklab1]

I forget this stuff quickly. I need to bookmark them!

This information is actually going to be useful on a daily basis at work. I didn’t know anti-seize made that much of a difference, I now know that there’s many steam flanges tightened down past manufacturers specs

 

[JWG]

That's not an accurate way to measure the previous torque.

It's not much different than loosening and measuring at the same time.
It takes a lot more torque to move the screw once it's stopped rotating.


If you've ever pushed a car or truck, you know it takes double the effort to get it moving. Once it's moving the effort to keep it moving is not that high.
Add in a slight incline and it's like coming up on your torque setting.

This has never been my experience. I always need less torque to remove the bolt than when it was torqued. It has literally never been more. Maybe if there are tapered interfaces?

 

[Charger442]

This has never been my experience. I always need less torque to remove the bolt than when it was torqued. It has literally never been more. Maybe if there are tapered interfaces?

when you look at it from a physics standpoint, moving a screw that is at rest takes more torque because static friction is higher than kinetic friction.

 

[JWG]

when you look at it from a physics standpoint, moving a screw that is at rest takes more torque because static friction is higher than kinetic friction.

It's also under load with two angular surfaces, with energy being spent toward the effort of extraction. This is why screws don't "vibrate tighter". All I know is that I can loosen ring cap screws literally every time with my torque wrench after tightening them using the same torque wrench at the same setting. Same for mounts clamped to the rail.

 

[carbonbased]

This has never been my experience. I always need less torque to remove the bolt than when it was torqued. It has literally never been more. Maybe if there are tapered interfaces?

This jives with the first video I posted. His test revealed that loosening a bolt is easier than torquing it on.