Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing FAL barrel shootin loose

I have a friend w/ an FAL that he cant seem to get the barrel tight enough. Atleast thats what I assume when he told me he tightened it in his lap holding the receiver w/ his knees.
I dont know much about FALs but im pretty sure a barrel needs to be tighter than that.
I was curious if anyone knew how much torque this should have if I was to put it in a padded vise to tighten?
Is there any tricks or special tools needed to tighten the barrel into the receiver? Would there be headspace issues if too tight?

The barrel should be considerably tighter than what you can get by hand. Merely screwing the barrel on tight is half the battle. Things have to align. Sounds like it needs to either be turned in a thread, or, shimmed. Headspace is adjusted through the use of special, interchangeable inserts.

To properly tighten and clock a fal bbl you need the tools in pic. I made my own. +1 headspace is adjusted with the "locking shoulder" that fits into receiver.