Fix It Sticks Pistol Armorer’s Toolkit Review: Buy Once, Cry Once

There’s an old saying that gets thrown around a lot in the firearms community. Buy once, cry once.

Usually it’s about buying a quality optic, a good holster, or spending a little more on a quality ammo and gear instead of replacing lower quality and knockoffs after being disapointed.

But you never hear much about tools.

For years we were like a lot of shooters. We’d use whatever Torx bit was laying around, borrow a screwdriver from someone at the range, or grab the free Allen wrench that came in the box with an optic. It worked… until it didn’t.

Eventually, like many of you, we stripped the mounting threads on one of our pistol slides. That mistake cost far more than a quality set of tools ever would have. 

Cheap Tools Get Expensive

If you shoot competitively, your optic is going to come off. Either on purpose or in the unfortunate event unexpectedly. Maybe you’re replacing batteries before Nationals. Maybe you’re changing optics. Maybe you’re swapping the slide. Maybe you’re helping a buddy at a match.

Whatever the reason, those optic screws are going to come out more than once. Every time you reinstall them, you have one job: torque them correctly. Too loose and your optic starts walking around halfway through a match. Too tight and you’re risking stripped screws, damaged threads, or compromised integrity of the screws.

Neither one is fun. I witnessed an optic fly off in the middle of a stage, as well as learned a hard lesson of what over torquing optics screws will do.

Once you’ve damaged the threads in a slide, you’ve got a much bigger problem than buying a better torque-bit . Now you’re looking at thread repair, oversized hardware, gunsmith work, or even replacing the slide entirely. That gets expensive fast.

Why We Chose Fix It Sticks

There are plenty of quality firearm tools on the market. Wheeler makes firearm specific tool products. Wiha and Wera make excellent bits. Plenty of shooters piece together their own kits over time. My armory tool box is a mess, and it stays home, and honestly I always guessed if my optic was torqued correctly. – You know the “just a bit past snug” and add your walk-out marks with a paint pen. 

We wanted one kit that lived in the range bag, handled nearly every job we’d run into on a pistol, and gave us confidence that optics were being installed to the manufacturer’s torque specification. 

That’s exactly what the Fix It Sticks Pistol Armorer’s Toolkit delivers. However it has one HUGE drawback. I am now forced to walk past my at home firearm tool box, and dig this kit out of my range cart. It has essentially replaced years worth of tool accumulation. Their website has a large selection of different kits focused specific needs.

The Pistol Armorer’s Toolkit includes Fix It Sticks adjustable torque driver, T-way (very well made with a build-in brass hammer), Glock and 1911 specific tools, punches, bench block, magnetic parts holder, cleaning accessories, extensions and a wide assortment of bits, all organized in a compact carrying case. Instead of hunting through a toolbox or trying to remember where a particular bit ended up, everything has its place.

Could you buy every piece separately? Absolutely. Could you build your own kit? Of course. But there’s something to be said for opening one case and knowing everything you need is right there.

Built for Competitive Shooters

One of the biggest reasons this kit stays in our range bag is portability. A traditional torque wrench works great on a workbench. Not so much under a canopy between stages at the safe table.

The Fix It Sticks system doesn’t take up much room, which means it actually travels with us instead of sitting in the garage. That’s important because optics never seem to loosen at home.They loosen during a major match, or at the range practicing.

Having the right tool with you means you can fix the problem correctly instead of guessing or borrowing whatever someone else has in their bag.

It’s Not Just for Competition

We selected this kit for competition shooting, but it has earned a permanent spot in our hunting trips too. It doesn’t take up much space, so it’s easy to throw in your hunting rig or leave at base camp. Whether it’s tightening a scope mount after bouncing down a logging road or fixing something before first light, having the right tools close by beats digging through an old coffee can full of mismatched tools and bits.

It’s About More Than Optics

While optics were the reason we selected this kit, we’ve ended up using it for much more.

Changing optics sure. Installing a Red Dirt trigger on the DWX. Installing extended magazine releases. Cleaning. Replacing grip panels. General maintenance after a long match weekend.

Fix It Sticks offers a wide variety of firearm-specific tool kits for handguns, AR-15s, precision rifles, shotguns, and hunters. We chose the Pistol Armorer’s Toolkit because most of our shooting revolves around pistols, and it has handled everything we’ve thrown at it so far.

Is It Worth the Money?

Let’s get the obvious question out of the way. This kit isn’t cheap. You’ll spend considerably more than you would on a handful of firearm specific tools or a bargain tool kit from Amazon or dare I say harbor freight – Don’t lie we have all done it.

But that’s also missing the point. You’re not paying for another driver set. You’re paying for precision. You’re paying for portability.

Most importantly, you’re paying to avoid turning a five-minute optic install into a several-hundred-dollar repair.

After stripping the threads on one of our own slides, it’s an easy decision.

Our Take

The Fix It Sticks Pistol Armorer’s Toolkit isn’t going to be the first tool kit you bought.

It’s the one you should have bought first.

If you’re mounting pistol optics for IDPA, USPSA, Steel Challenge, or you simply enjoy spending time on the range, proper torque isn’t optional. It’s part of maintaining your equipment.

The “buy once, cry once” mentality usually applies to firearms and optics, but we’d argue it applies just as much to the tools you use to work on them. 

Replacing tools with a quality Fit It Stick kit hurts once.

Replacing a slide hurts a whole lot more.