Being a hopeless "gearhead", I have been looking around and found myself a torque-reading screwdriver. The Wheeler FAT (Firearm Accurizing Torquedriver) Wrench. Midway lists them for around $ 50. This site has them a bit cheaper:
http://www.manventureoutpost.com/outdoor/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=644The driver handle has a disc / clutch mechanism with an adjusting knob at the base. The back of the package lists typical recommended torque settings for aluminum vs. steel scope rings, gun actions, stock screws, etc. Together with a roll of teflon pipe seal tape (can be found cheaply at any hardware or plumbing supply store), the FAT torque driver is a good tool to snug up all those loose stock screws on your air rifles. Pretty quick to learn how to use this torque driver, and it seems to make sense to properly and symmetrically tighten, but not over tighten the screws on the stocks and scopes of all my springers. We all know the headaches loose scope mounts and stocks can cause when we are chasing down a problem with accuracy.
J Woodcock suggested to me, some time ago, that I should be using the teflon tape rather than blue LocTite for the stock screws on my springers. My recent experience with the stock on my Gamo Hunter Elite tells me that he was probably right. I had a loose stock with tight screws -- the reason was that there was old, cured LocTite in the threads and even though I had properly tightened the screws (against the dried LocTite, as it turned out) the stock remained a bit loose.
Anyhow, if any of you gearheads who work on you own air rifles should be looking for or consider looking for a torque driver, this one seems pretty adequate to me. Certainly better than my old way of guesstimating how tight the screw should be, and certainly cheaper than some of the $200-300+ torque wrenches and drivers out there on the market.
