USMC Returning to 3-Rod Cleaning Kits
According to the Marine Corps Times (which is not formally affiliated with the United States Marine Corps), the USMC is starting to phase out the OTIS soft cleaning kits in favor of an old-time favorite – the three rod cleaning kits originally issued with the M16A1 rifles.
A result of the Combat Marksmanship Symposium at Marine Corps Base Quantico, the decision was primarily based on the ability of the new kit to clean the barrel and secondarily, to be able to clear stuck-case malfunctions that the new system was unable to do.
The “new” cleaning system, packaged in a small round MOLLE pouch manufactured by OTIS made use of small modular components, which while useful for nearly any cleaning scenario that a Marine would face, was prone to losing those said small components in the field.
The kit made use of a flexible cleaning cable which according to Colonel Tim Parker, CO of USMC Weapons Training Battalion “…simply lacks the friction needed to properly clean a rifle barrel.” He continued, “Quite Frankly, they don’t work as well as the old rods we had… This is what the fleet (the nickname for the active Marine Corps) was telling us, so we said ‘All right, we tried a good idea–now let’s go back to the original one..
The “old” kits cost 4 times less than the new soft-pack. No word on how Marines are supposed to carry the “old” kits on their physical combat loads, as the M16 with full butt-stock is being phased out in favor of the collapsible M4.
One of TFB's resident Jarheads, Nathan now works within the firearms industry. A consecutive Marine rifle and pistol expert, he enjoys local 3-gun, NFA, gunsmithing, MSR's, & high-speed gear. Nathan has traveled to over 30 countries working with US DoD & foreign MoDs.The above post is my opinion and does not reflect the views of any company or organization.
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Not sure if it's relevant, but my reserve unit just went through every Marine's OTIS kit and removed just about everything except the cable, wire brush, patch puller, and toothbrush head. The explanation was inventory (they don't want people losing all the other stuff in them...cheap bits that they are). My guess is, with this bit of news, that they're gearing up to pull all of them soon. Makes sense to me anyway.
That being said, I always use the 3-rod system that comes in the bigger OTIS kit I got "issued" (it was actually issued by supply, but not inventoried) for a deployment shortly after joining the unit. Pretty good kit that includes the rods, t-handle, full toothbrush, cables, and assortment of rod attachments. That plus a bore snake and the AR star patches have served me well for the last several years. Much better than just the small OTIS kit did.
I own all of the Otis products. I like all of them for the most part although I go back and forth between them and traditional rods. However, the shotgun specific cleaning kits with the rubber disks are SPECTACULAR!