I didn’t have my torque wrench handy so I tightened down my scope rings with a T15 driver to what I thought was good. Later I grabbed the wrench and set them correctly at 25 inch pounds. Guess what, I was a full rotation too loose. I was actually very surprised.

Point being, if you’re not very experienced doing it by hand (I'm not), a torque wrench is a must have for mounting scopes, tightening action bolts, etc. I can think 1 action screw, and two scopes that came loose on me before I got a torque wrench. I just proved to myself why. Anyway, food for thought.

I was concerned about that too so I picked one up from Home Depot a couple weeks back.

Im the guy who always tries to get another little turn on it and strips or breaks anything that isn't 1/2 inch lol When we are putting something together my brother and dad will always be like "whoa whoa now that's enough you don't wanna screw it up"

I do love my little fat wrench, if your gonna mount scopes etc. I think its great to use one.

25 in lb sounds right for steel rings but may be high if aluminum. Did you use loc-tite?

I couldn't find my FAT wrench the other day and wanted to check the cap screws on a scope I moved to a .300WM. Knowing that recoil might move it around, I tightened them by hand and was surprised by how loose I thought they felt even though they were installed originally with the torque wrench. I'm afraid I may have over-tightened them but we'll see once I find the wrench.

Steel rings, no loctite.