Securely held together by a series of magnets, Gerber’s Short Stack can ride discreetly in your range bag until you need it.

Sized to fit inside Magpul’s MOE or MIAD pistol grip, Gerber’s Short Stack ensures that when Murphy shows up, you’ll have the tools necessary for cleaning and maintaining your AR in the field. Unlike your typical Swiss Army-­style multi-­tool, the tiny Short Stack is held together with small, powerful magnets and breaks down into three primary components (a handle, castle nut wrench and front sight adjustment tool).

Separating the three pieces can be a chore for the uninitiated; however, we found that by pressing the 3/8-­inch stud on the handle as if it were a button accomplished the task easily. Once shooters pop the short stack apart, they can configure the components in whichever manner allows them to perform their maintenance task most efficiently.

Gerber utilized every available piece of real estate on each piece of the Short Stack to push its maintenance capabilities to the max. To assist with cleaning, the 3/8-­inch stud on the handle is tapped to accept standard cleaning jags and can serve as a T-­handle for bore snakes or Otis cleaning cables by utilizing the machined channel down its center. In addition to being a perfectly sized scraper tool for carbon, the handle also has an integrated 4mm wrench/bit driver and a couple of bits to work on M-­LOK fasteners and certain optics components. In fact, I used the small Phillips bit to replace the batteries in one of my daughter’s toys — operating the screwdriver bit was awkward, but the win came from utilizing the tool that I had on hand.

American soldiers get creative when it comes to carbon removal in the field — having an easily accessible carbon scraper can pay off in spades.

When faced with tasks that require a bit more oomph, shooters can gain leverage on the situation by popping the handle into the other pieces of the Short Stack for performing tasks like tightening a loose castle nut or muzzle treatments with ¾-­inch flats. Although unstaked castle nuts shouldn’t even be a thing, I can recall at least one time when I had a castle nut come loose on a test gun. And  I was hand-­tightening the castle nut after each magazine for the remainder of my range session. The Short Stack would’ve come in handy.

At just 2.9 inches long and 2.8 ounces, the Short Stack can easily be forgotten about until the exact moment you need it. All in all, the Short Stack is designed to perform 15 functions that assist with cleaning and maintenance for AR platforms. In addition to those already mentioned, other notable features include the front sight post adjustment tool and 7mm open-­faced wrench for M-­LOK T-­nuts. There’s a fine line between paranoid and prepared. Stay on the right side of the equation — skip the sale on surplus gas masks and check out the Gerber Short Stack instead.

Once separated into its primary components, shooters can turn the bolt scraper into a makeshift handle by coupling the 3/8-inch stud with the closed, 3/8-inch wrenches of the other components.

List of Tools

• Front sight adjustment tool
• Firing pin scraper
• Bolt carrier & bolt scraper
• Cleaning cable
  pull-­through handle
• Buffer tube wrench
• 4mm wrench/bit driver
• 7mm wrench for M-­LOK fasteners
• ½-­inch wrench
• 3/8-­inch wrench
• ¾-­inch wrench
• Curved slotted driver
• (2) two-­sided hex bits
  (#0 cross driver, T10,
  1/8-­inch hex, 4mm hex)

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