Battle Steel CRT Gen 2 Carbon Removal Cleaning Tool

I just purchased my first AR-15 recently and I figured that I would just use my regular rifle/shotgun cleaning kits for this gun as well. While I could use some pieces of these cleaning kits, I soon discovered that some tools specifically designed for the AR-15 would make the job of cleaning specific components a lot easier. The carbon build up in the bolt carrier group can get pretty bad, especially when you've got a box of cheaper rounds in the mix. Watching a few videos on YouTube concerning the disassembly and cleaning of the AR-15, I noticed that some were using something known as a CAT AR-15 tool that really helped in cleaning the carbon from the interior walls of the bolt carrier and the bolt tail radius. The price of this particular tool was a bit much so I looked for some alternates that would essentially do the same thing. A few videos and reviews later, I was brought to the attention of the Botach CRT tool. The price was a bit more reasonable and many spoke highly of it, so I decided to go with it.It's a small tool with an adjustable fork that according to some of the video demonstrations that I saw, can be adjusted to work with a 308 as well. I am using this tool for the .223/5.56 AR-15. The design has changed a little bit from some of the older video post that I saw. There use to be some serrated areas on top of the two forks to work as finger grips for spinning the tool. They have been removed but I didn't find turning the tool difficult without them. Also, the older model had an open area for cleaning the firing pin in the "handle" of the tool. You can now see three individual holes in this area and they perform the same way. My firing pin fits in each one and this also does the same thing to clean carbon from the flat base of the pin. The tool came shipped in a small plastic bag and I just keep it in that when storing it in my gun cleaning box.I'm new to the AR-15 world, but I know it's important to keep your guns clean and to take them apart for a better understanding of how they work. After cleaning my gun for the first time, I realized that my standard rifle cleaning supplies were not exactly designed to clean some of the components that make up the AR-15. This tool can certainly help with some of those areas. I had cleaned my gun the best that I could without the tool but when this arrived, I broke the gun down again and used it to see how it would perform. I was able to scrape away quite a bit of carbon that I wasn't able to get at or remove during my previous cleaning. So it does work! I also recommend checking out some videos on the web where you can see this in action. It's a handy little tool to have and it can make cleaning your AR-15 a bit easier. I recommend.

Wonderful tool. An AR-15 can really gum up all the parts in the bolt carrier group, with lots of carbon deposits blown back and baked on from the burnt propellant used to operate the direct impingement system.This small tool allows you to scrape almost all the burnt deposits off of three of the areas that get it the worst: back end of the bolt, inside the bolt carrier, and the firing pin. Squirt a little Break Free (or other) CLP product on the parts, let them sit for five minutes, use the K-Z CRT to scrape off most of the carbon, and use a brass brush and cloth/patches to take the cleaning task to whatever limits you want (...I'm lazy, can't see taking it to the white-glove-test level).There are similar tools out there to clean the bolt and bolt carrier, but most are more expensive. I haven't used all those other tools, so my advice should be taken with a large grain of salt -- but from what I've heard and read, none of them appear to work better than (or even as well as) this one does.

I bought this to clean several AR-15/AR-10 bolts. For an AR-15 bolt, it scrapes the carbon off the bolt tail, about down to 5-10% left on the base that you'll need to get with something else (dental pick?) - if you're a clean freak. This is no surprise though, as not all bolts have exactly the same dimensions and the tool has to fit what would be the best compromise in sizes. It's good for a quick and dirty cleaning (no pun intended) of the bolt tail.If you are cleaning AR-10 or AR-10 clone bolts, the two little nubs on the end of the forks will keep the tool from seating all the way down onto the base of the AR-10 bolt tail (it is designed for the smaller AR-15/M4/M16 bolt after all). You will get the sides of the tail real clean, but still have to scrape the base.In the carrier it's a bit less effective than use on the bolt tail, but still a few times better than a screwdriver. It gets the crud in the base of the recess broken up, and you can shake out flakes of carbon buildup. It scrapes the side of the round walls of the carrier bolt recess really well. You can see chrome on the walls after just one pass.I did use the center slot to clean the firing pin of both AR-15 and AR-10. There is that annoying carbon buildup right at the base of the pin section, made twice as bad for an AR-10 as it has a return spring on the firing pin that seats here. The slot doesn't do much to carbon on the pin, I found that using the edges of the tool were more effective. There are no instructions included, maybe I am doing this part wrong.I got the "original" version, just before the "improved" version came out (literally it was delivered the same day that Amazon changed the product page). The only difference I can see from the picture is that the new one has serrations on the sides of the fork, not sure what that would do for you other than get a slightly better grip on it while turning it on a bolt tail.

I’m an LEO and shoot at least 100-200 rounds of 5.56 out of my work and personal rifles every week. I typically spend an hour or so every week cleaning weapons and used to resort to barbaric chipping and brushing to clean the carbon buildup on my AR bolts. I’ve always seen tools like this online, but never ponied up and spent the $20 to try what I used to think was a gimmick or novelty tool. Boy was I wrong.This tool has cut down my bolt cleaning time significantly and scrapes off carbon buildup that I didn’t even know was there. Quality item and something every serious rifle shooter should have in their cleaning kit. A++