Episode Details

Otis Technology CEO Bill joins State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John for a deep talk on gun cleaning, the science behind lubricants, and why so much common maintenance advice is wrong. Bill opens with his favorite Otis tool, the Ripcord, which uses Nomex woven over the cable to handle a smoking hot barrel up to 700 degrees, and explains how he runs it through the ejection port between competition stages to stay clean. He walks through the company's story: Otis is celebrating its 40th year, founded in 1985 after Doreen Williams got the muzzle of her rifle stuck in the mud while hunting with her dad and went looking through her grandpa's World War II kit for a way to clean it. From a kitchen table to a garage to four decades of family reinvestment, Otis has supplied the U.S. military almost exclusively for the last 30 years, cleaning everything from small arms up to 155mm, and makes its commercial products on the same machines with the same people.

The heart of the episode is the WD-40 warning. Bill explains that WD stands for water displacement, the product was built around the 50s or late 40s to push water out of a mechanical part, and a gun should not have water in it to begin with. Because the viscosity is so low, it migrates everywhere. John backs it up with a story about a Columbus police officer who sprayed his service revolver with WD-40 every day with the ammunition still loaded. When the officer got into a shooting, he pulled the trigger six times and every round failed because the WD-40 had soaked into the ammunition and made the propellant inert. Bill and John also cover real maintenance habits: more lubricant is not better since excess turns to mud and can cause malfunctions, EDC guns should be cleaned every couple of months and more often in humid summer heat to fight rust, and magazine springs should not be compressed for too long so feeding stays reliable.

Bill also covers Otis kits for new owners, noting roughly 20 million new shooters have entered the space since 2019, and details three new products launched at SHOT Show: a suppressor cleaning concentrate, a muzzleloading kit, and an air gun cleaning kit. As a firearms instructor in New York, he closes on the post-Bruin legal landscape, the state's 16-hour CCW classroom requirement, and the three topics he considers most important to teach: de-escalation, situational awareness, and suicide prevention, the last tied to about 1,700 lives lost to suicide a year in New York. The episode wraps with Otis returning to GOA's GOALS event in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 9th and 10th.

Questions this episode answers

Why is WD-40 a bad choice for cleaning or lubricating a gun?

WD stands for water displacement, a product built in the late 1940s or 1950s to push water out of mechanical parts, and a gun should not have water in it to begin with. Its viscosity is so low that it migrates everywhere it shouldn't, including into places that cause problems.

What actually happens to ammunition when WD-40 soaks into it?

The low-viscosity WD-40 seeps into the cartridge and renders the propellant inert. A Columbus police officer who sprayed his loaded service revolver daily had all six rounds fail to fire during a shooting because the propellant had been deadened.

How often should you clean an everyday carry gun?

An EDC gun should be cleaned every couple of months, and more often during humid summer heat to fight rust. The goal is to keep it working, not to let it become a safe queen that never comes out.

Can you use too much lubricant on a firearm?

Yes. More lubricant is not better, because excess turns to mud and can cause malfunctions. A light, correct amount keeps the gun running reliably.

What is the story behind how Otis Technology was founded?

Otis began in 1985 after Doreen Williams got her rifle muzzle stuck in the mud while hunting with her dad and went looking thro