I used that particular cleaning rod more times than I care to count! Guard duty came up about every 2 weeks, and if you got picked as the "supernumerary" you got out of that night's guard duty. We had a machine that we used to degrease teletypes and typewriters in our shop, and would put all of the M-14 metal parts into the machine and let it run for awhile to get every bit of grease and gunk off before reassembling the weapon for guard duty. Couldn't get the barrel and receiver in the machine, so we had to use the cleaning rod and elbow grease for that part, and getting all of the residue out of the rifling took a LOT of elbow grease! Someone from our maintenance shop usually was selected as the supernumerary, so the machine and the elbow grease must have worked! Hated guard duty.........LOVED that M-14! Never failed to fire the entire time I had it!
Andy
