CLEANING RIFLE SCOPES
Many Rifle Scopes have high quality multicoated lenses (that’s the purple, green or sometimes orange color you see when you look at the lenses). These highly sophisticated lenses provide significantly higher resolution (sharpness) and color fidelity (detail) when looking through them. However peak performance is only available when these lenses are properly maintained and cleaned.
This is especially true during the time of day when the light is low. It’s a fact, a dirty or smudged scope lens will cut down on how bright and how sharp the image is going to be.
It’s always a good idea to keep the scope lenses covered when not in use. But after a day in the field they are exposed to all kinds of contaminates like dust, dirt, and even pollen, which means it’s only a matter of time before they need cleaning.
Cleaning a Rifle Scope
Step 1.
Start by brushing away dust and dirt particles from the lenses of the scope. Using a very soft brush designed to clean optical surfaces like the Ultra Brush from Peca Products Inc. brush dust or dirt particles away from the center of the lens towards the outside edges.
Step 2.
To remove minor smudges or fingerprints, the Soft-Tek split microfiber cloth is ideal. Start in the middle of the lens and using a circular motion clean towards the outside edges of the lens.
Not all cloth material like a handkerchief will remove smudges or fingerprints. Round fibers found in many cloth materials will tend to spread smudges and fingerprints. By contrast the triangular shapes of the fibers found in the Soft-Tek split microfiber cloth act almost like a squeegee wiping away smudges and fingerprints from the lens surface.
The extra thickness of the Soft-Tek cloth allows smaller dust and dirt particles to be swept up into the cloth away from the lens surface instead of being dragged across the lens surface and possibly leaving a small scratch.
Step 3.
If more aggressive cleaning is needed the combination of Premium Grade Lens Cleaning Tissue and Formula MC or LensBrite liquid lens cleaner is recommended.
Premium Grade Lens Cleaning Tissue manufactured by Peca Products Inc. is the world’s finest optical tissue. It is extremely soft and virtually lint-free and is specifically designed to clean lenses. It is safe for any lens and meets Federal Specification NNN-P-40B.
Put a few drops of liquid lens cleaner on a wad (several sheets wadded up) of Premium Grade Lens Cleaning Tissue and clean in a circular motion from the center of the lens towards outside edges.
Before the liquid dries completely from the lens surface, use a new dry wad of Premium Grade Lens Cleaning Tissue and continue cleaning in a circular motion until all signs of the fluid are gone the lens looks clean and polished.
LensBrite Liquid Lens Cleaner is specifically designed provide anti-fog action.
Formula MC Liquid Lens Cleaner is formulated to clean without leaving any residue behind on the lens surface after cleaning. Formula MC has become the liquid lens cleaner by which all others are measured. I has been tested, approved and purchased by NASA for use on the Space Shuttle program.
Premium Grade Lens Tissue, LensBrite and Formula MC are manufactured by Peca Products Inc. in Beloit, WI.