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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Leatherman MUT‏

FerFal,

What are your thoughts on the new multi tool for AR15-style rifles, the Leatherman MUT (http://www.leatherman.com/product/MUT)? Would this be a good tool to add to one's collection?

Thanks,

Loyalist
Boston, MA
Mut, MOLLE Tactical, Black

Hi Loyalist,
You know, I really wanted to like this tool. It looks very nice and was marketed as a shooters multitool, but after looking into it a bit, seeing a few videos and reading the specs, I don’t think I’ll ever buy one of these.
First of all, it seems to be made around the AR rifle. I wont even make fun of the fact that the ARs reliability allowed an entire market for a multitool to clear its jams. I doubt we’ll ever see a Leatherman to clear the jams in an AK or a FAL. :-)
Its nice for example that you can attach cleaning rods to it, but then again you have Otis cleaning kits and Snakebores.
The hammer is an interesting addition and it seems Leatherman understood that a driver bit of half an inch length is of limited use to say the least. Even my little Victorinox Minichamp has drivers with more length.
The MUT/AR combo as a solution for failures to fire just doesn’t fly in my opinion. You’re supposed to incorporate that into your training? Use the MUT as standard FTF drills? No joking, if your gun is that bad that you can clear it with conventions FTF drills then you may need a more reliable tool.
I would have preferred a good owl instead of the explosives punch, its something I’d sure find more uses for. For Glock mag disassemble, for example, I use the needle pliers as a punch and that good enough.
The scrapper may come in handy and its nice that they thought of a material that doesn’t scratch the gun, but again, you have that and other cleaning tool in your kit so I don’t see the point in cleaning kit redundancy.
Shooter or not I still believe that the Charge Tti or the Wave are better mutlitools, and the tools the MUT has don’t compensate for the ones it doesn’t when compared to the Charge or Wave.

 LEATHERMAN - MULTI TOOL, CHARGE TTI, LEATHER (830666) (830666) 
FerFAL

5 comments:

B said...

FerFal,

The unreliability of the AR rifles has been greatly exxagerated. If your rifle is manufactured decently (i.e., not a shitty knockoff,) your mags are good and you load properly (bolt locked to the rear, seat magazine, send bolt forward,) they go forever. Oh, and you have to keep the guts swimming in oil-a policy I follow with all guns anyway. I would go through a few mags a week for months at a time with no malfunctions that I can think of.

Anonymous said...

There is a segment of the U.S. population and for that matter the entire world who's only purpose in life is to discover and crow about something/anything American. Indeed the early M16 had problems mostly based around a decision to use a different propellent when they adopted it for the Army. Some of my friends who have been in fire fights with terrorists and insurgents have described frequent jamming of the famous AK47. If you google AK47 jamming you will get numerous first hand accounts of this "rare" event. I am a big fan of weapons and I think it was a stroke of genius to design a gun (AK47) with such sloppy clearances that it didn't need cleaning and was more dependable. I do think it is true, I'm not trying to put the AK47 down, but I do think when an American made/issued gun jams it is worthy of front page news but when an AK47 in the hands of a twelve year old killing women and children in Somalia jams that either no one ever hears about it or they don't care.
One last point: EVERY auto jams. The trick is to know what to do next. This is why my "goto" gun is a single action .357 revolver and not a Glock.

FerFAL said...

Your go to gun is a single action 357? And you thinks its a good idea, better gun for the job than a Glock.. because semi autos jam? ...ok

FerFAL

Anonymous said...

Correct. A single action revolver, no safety, .357. I can pick it up in the dark and it will work and not jam. Would it be suitable for a fire-fight against 20 men all armed with auto's? Of course not but it will sure make a hole in anyone breaking into my house in the middle of the night.

Anonymous said...

Hi FerFal, I have been following your blog for a while now and appreciate your time and info. I do have a question regarding your choice of the Charge TTI. Why pick that one over the Surge?(or the Wave?)
Thanks,

BUDDY