USMC Sectional Cleaning Rod
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2025 9:55 pm
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That is the Ol' Sarge cleaning kit. Deluxe edition. the simple edition was in a cheap bag.
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That is the USMC sectional cleaning rod. Universal Engineering is on the case. As is the contract. NOM-49215. NOM is a USMC contract.
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That one is pretty close. I don't know if I trust it, so a grid was necessary.
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Which indicates it's right. 49154 is about where they should be in July 1945. So NOM-49215 isn't much later than that. Accepting that everything slowed down after the bombs of August.
Bill Ricca, who I do respect, thought these were early Korean War. No, these are technically WW2.
The Army basically copied this into the M10 cleaning rod system. With some changes, yes, but that was basically a rip-off of this.
With the end of WW2, surplus gun cleaning equipment was cheap. Universal Engineering was folded by 1948. A court battle between Arch and his distributor was part of the fall out.
Weirdest bit? The oil can in the Deluxe Edition of the Ol' Sarge kit has a patent date in the 1890s. Long since expired. Somebody was peddling old oilers. Arch used them.