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Basic Rifle Cleaning and Maintenance
Regular cleaning and maintenance of your rifle means better accuracy and a longer life for your weapon. Rifle care and cleaning is easy and these tips will make it even easier. Warning - before doing any cleaning or maintenance make sure your rifle is unloaded! This should be a no-brainer, but the number of accidents that happen during cleaning means too many shooters aren't following this advice. Remove all the ammo, check to be sure the chamber is empty and pull off the trigger while the rifle is pointed in a safe direction.
The most important tip is to buy a rifle-cleaning kit that is made specifically for your rifle size. The standard rifle kit will have the correct size cleaning rods, cleaning patches, rod tips to hold the patches, bore brushes, cleaning solvent and gun oil.
First off, take out the bolt. Bolt-action guns have a release lever that makes the bolt come free easily. Wipe the bolt down, but don't re-oil it excessively.
Set up your cleaning rod by attaching a patch soaked in cleaning solvent to the end. Push the rod through the barrel from the bolt end. If you clean from the end of the barrel you'll be shoving gunk into the bolt area. That's not good. Repeat this until the patch comes out clean.
Now clean the exterior parts of your rifle with the correct solvent and then dry it off good. If your rifle has a scope, remove it and check the base to make sure it's clean, not too oily and the screws are tight. While the scope is off, clean the lenses with a cleaner made specifically for lenses. Camera lens cleaning cloths and solutions are perfect for this. Replace the scope.
If your rifle has somehow developed rust spots, buff these with some fine steel wool until the rust has been removed and the metal is smooth again. Make sure these spot are oiled well to prevent the rust from returning.
If there are spots where the bluing has worn off, reblue them with the proper compound. You want to avoid bright spots on your rifle barrel to make it less visible in the field. More importantly, the places where the bluing has worn off is more likely to develop rust.
Check all the screws on the rifle to make sure they are tight and not burred or stripped. Make sure to replace them with screws of the same size and length. Don't just grab up some screws from around the shop. Go to a gunsmith and get what you need and a few extra.
If it bothers you that your rifle's wooden stock is dinged up you can usually fix them easily. Dampen a cleaning patch and lay it over the ding. Use a hot iron to heat the moist cloth until it steams. The steam will cause the wood fibers to swell and fill out the ding. This won't work for huge gouges, but the smaller stuff should even right out.
About the Author http://www.DiscountSniperScopes.com helps hunt down the best deals on sniper scopes and Bushnell rifle scopes and Nikon rifle scopes
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