Barrel correct toque

[UrbanWolf]

So my research tells me it's anywhere from 30 foot pound to 70 foot pound, seems like too much of a difference.

Did i read off the wrong info?

[BPTactical]

Most manufacturers that supply their own barrel nut have specific torque values, if that is the case follow their reccomendations.
As a general rule: install the barrel nut dry and torque to 40 ft/lbs. Back off and repeat 3 times, this burnishes the threads.
For final installation lubricate the receiver extension with moly grease, moly anti seize or such DO NOT USE A GRAPHITE BASED PRODUCT!
Torque barrel nut to 40 ft/lbs and check alignment of gas tube hole relative to the barrel nut. If required tighten the nut to its next point that lines up with the gas tube hole, not to exceed 80 ft/lbs.
Do not loosen the barrel nut to align it with the gas tube hole.
So theoretically 40-80 ft/lbs is your range.

[Cylinder Head]

Most manufacturers that supply their own barrel nut have specific torque values, if that is the case follow their reccomendations.
As a general rule: install the barrel nut dry and torque to 40 ft/lbs. Back off and repeat 3 times, this burnishes the threads.
For final installation lubricate the receiver extension with moly grease, moly anti seize or such DO NOT USE A GRAPHITE BASED PRODUCT!
Torque barrel nut to 40 ft/lbs and check alignment of gas tube hole relative to the barrel nut. If required tighten the nut to its next point that lines up with the gas tube hole, not to exceed 80 ft/lbs.
Do not loosen the barrel nut to align it with the gas tube hole.
So theoretically 40-80 ft/lbs is your range.

Aaaaand this is why Bert works on my guns.

[Circuits]

So my research tells me it's anywhere from 30 foot pound to 70 foot pound, seems like too much of a difference.

Did i read off the wrong info?

The reason there is a range is in order to align the barrel nut's gas tube notch within a safe torque spec.
The objective is to get one of the nut notches aligned with at least minimum torque applied, but without going over the max.

Ideally in a world of perfect tolerances, all barrel nuts would align a notch at about 35lbs +/-5lbs, but since tolerances can stack, the given range will let you get the job done.

[KS63]

I set my Snap-On digital torque wrench to 30ft/lbs and tightened the nut three times. Then I set it to maximum 80ft/lbs and tightened until the gas tube notch was perfectly centered. Final torque was 45ft/lbs.

[MarkCO]

Anything under 40 pounds and you will end up with thermal drift. You will also find that using anti-seize will result in a "position" that is about one gas tube hole more than without for the same torque. I have one rifle that was torqued to 110 ft-pounds, had 8K rounds on it, shoots half MOA with no first or last round fliers and no thermal drfit.

I have seen a LOT of ARs that start to have functions issues after maybe a few thousand rounds. The gas key is usually fine, but the end of the gas tube is an oval. Nut loosened, put a side force on the gas tube and wore it out until the leakage was enough it started to have failures. In most of these cases, the barrel nut was torqued under 50 pounds. I won't use anything under 60 pounds and feel okay with it.