99.9% of what you'll find on the net is spewed off by morons who know jack #### what they're talking about and are just repeating ingorant drivel they've seen somewhere else. There's pretty much only one place on the internet where you can get reliable factual information and that's because that's where the industry professionals, aka american instructors and armorers hang out. I've been hanging over there for over 10 years.
If you're talking about the Luckygunner test conducted by Andrew Tuohy, who I respect greatly and have talked with in the past, two of the four Bushmasters they got brand new for the test had barrel nuts that were only hand tight, they were not torqued. https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/
I'll highligh some key elements for you:
Barrel nuts were torqued to inconsistent values: two had been torqued to approximately 5 ft/lbs, while the other two had been torqued within the appropriate range of 30-80 ft/lbs.
Each firearm was broken down and inspected to ensure that it was within acceptable standards; this initial visual inspection did not reveal any deficiencies serious enough to be addressed prior to the beginning of the test. During the first range trip, however, serious accuracy issues were noted with two carbines – the Federal and Brown Bear weapons.
Both shot groups of over 5MOA, or over 5 inches at 100 yards, out of the box. It should be noted that ten shot groups were fired for all accuracy testing in this article, and the results are not directly comparable with three or five shot groups. Because these groups were much larger than they should have been with any factory new ammunition, the rifles were examined.
The upper receiver assemblies of the two problem carbines were completely disassembled in order to determine the cause of this issue. It was immediately apparent that the problem related to improper barrel nut torque values – the barrel nuts, which slide over a collar on the barrel and thread onto the front of the upper receiver, required less than 5 ft-lbs to break loose.
Proper torque values for this part are 30-80 ft-lbs. Once the components were properly reassembled, ten shot group sizes shrank to approximately 3.5 MOA, which is a realistic result to expect from standard carbines firing bulk ammunition.
I doubt the Stag has a 6061 tube, stag is CMT and they're a Colt contractor, they make 7075 tubes.
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We visit the factory regularly for over 10 years and can know their materials manager well, whoever told you that was mistaken. The reason everyone selling CMT or Stag receiver extensions as 7075 is because they are 7075. Stag doesn't use any milspec parts that aren't current milspec materials. Not that it matters a whole lot on the receiver extension, but they don't do a 6061 receiver extension. Many many many of the milspec 7075 receiver extensions on the market today, of many top brands, come from John Downey Dr, New Britain, CT.
