I have a dedicated range bag. It is full of tools, training aids, cleaning supplies, and a spare med kit for the sudden surprise extra leaky hole. But let me tell you a secret about that big well stocked bag. It’s never, ever, conveniently around when I just need one tool really quick. Like I said, it’s a range bag. It comes with me on the range, on a planned ballistic excursion.
It isn’t with me when my Amazon package arrives with a brand new light in it. Or that Brownells package with new grip panels. Or the new optic that arrives from Big Tex Outdoors. My range bag full of my helpful tools is nowhere convenient then, but it’s stocked to the brim just in case I have some catastrophic malfunction of all this really durable reliable gear all at once and I need to strip the whole system down to the molecular level.
But this little guy… The Twist is there in my pocket.
Arriving in a magnetically clasped foam lined case of decadent quality, the Twist is no larger than a fine pen. Above the tool itself, within the case, is the 10 bit set of stainless tool heads, I’ll cover more on them later but the whole system is as portable as an EDC pocket light.
Beneath the o-ring sealed caps are where most of your tools reside. The exception is the Aimpoint Micro sight adjustment tool on the top. Marked with a direction arrow for right/up, the assembly is infinitely easier to index and turn than the Aimpoint caps, less likely to vanish into the ether than the caps, and usable in gloves which was always aggravatingly annoying with the caps.
Beneath the top shell is the AR front sight tool. All the dexterity advantages you have on the Aimpoint Micro tool are here too. Up/Down made easy and range expedient.
“Iron sights were designed so you can use the tip of a 5.56!”
True, but that method sucks. It’s slower and sight tools exist to make the process not suck. The sight tool is magnetically held and the base serves as your driver for the 10 stainless bits.
Inside the other o-ring sealed end of the knurled aluminum body are the cleaning and maintenance bits. A scraper for carbon, a dental pick for non-dental use, and a punch sized to help drive the most common pins. Of note, a punch is not a pry bar and use as such will probably break the punch, which is again… not a pry bar.
These pieces, plus a cloth and some cleaner/oil, will clean anything you’ve got back to an easy ready state. The open end, threaded for these longer tool bits, will also accept most common thread on accessories, like pull through bore cleaners, that use the 8-32 thread (OTIS).
In the 1/4″ bit kit are a pretty standard array of drivers. Two flats, a 3/16 and a 3/32, and a No. 1 Philips for standard screws. T10 and T15 Torx for common screws on sights and bases. Five hex head drivers in ascending 1/64 SAE order, 3/32, 7/64, 1/8, 9/64, and 3/16. If you need metric it’s an easy add for any 1/4″ driver set from a hardware store.
MSRP $59.95
Multitasker tools are purpose built. They are designed to be the tool you need. In most cases the only tool you need. Not the dollar store ‘one and done because now its broken’ set. Premium grade aluminum and tool steel, top of the line finishes, set the way the owner and designer wanted his tools for his guns.
The Twist is built with that mentality. This is the tool “I” wanted, that “I” needed. “I” built it from the best materials for the job. If you like it, great. If not, oh well. Do you want the one time buy that will take care of you, or do you want to spend dollar store money and hope the maintenance problem doesn’t come back? On a system that requires a maintenance cycle too, by the way.
It’s an economic equation as old as tools themselves, “buy once, cry once” and the tools take care of you. Quality tools always do.
