If your rifle has a rifle scope, it also needs to be kept clean. Hopefully, you’re not using harsh everyday rags to clean the delicate lens. You need a microfiber cloth to remove dust and other interfering particles to keep your lens clean, but more importantly, you need to keep the cloth itself free of dust and dirt.
How To Clean Microfiber Cloth for Rifle Scopes?
To clean a microfiber cloth for rifle scopes, you must handwash it in a bowl of warm water with a little bit of soap and let it air dry in a dust-free environment. You should avoid cleaning the cloth with other laundry and make sure that you don’t use a strong detergent in the process.
In this article, you’ll learn more about keeping your rifle scope clean and the steps you should take to keep the microfiber lens cloth free of dirt, including how to:
- Add the right amount of soap into a bowl of warm water
- Dip the fabric in long enough to get rid of stains and dirt
- Air-dry the cloth in a dust-free environment
Microfiber Lens Cloth: A Must-Have for Riflescopes
Some rifle scopes come with a care package that includes a special cloth and a portion of cleaning solution.
This isn’t the industry standard, though. The ‘special cloth,’ if you received one, is the same variety as the one used to clean glasses.
It is called microfiber and is efficient at cleaning the lenses without impacting the surface too much.
Through a combination of tiny fibers that are negatively and positively charged, static energy is generated to attract small particles off your rifle scope’s lens.
When you use a regular towel or tissue paper to clean the rifle scope’s surface, you’re not cleaning your rifle scope’s tiny particles by lifting them. Instead, you’re rubbing them off the surface.
This can smudge the dirt on the ocular lens or even create tiny scratches that interfere with vision thanks to parallax magnification.
In other words, whether you receive a complimentary microfibre cloth or have to buy your own separately, you cannot afford to use the wrong material to clean your rifle scope’s eyepiece.
We recommend MagicFiber Cleaning Cloth manufactured with delicate yet effective materials and has over 35,900 reviews. Its global average rating is 4.7 out of 5 stars, and 80% of the reviewers give it five stars.
How To Clean a Rifle Scope With a Microfiber Cloth
The process of cleaning your rifle scope lens is pretty straightforward. Cover your forefinger with a dry microfibre and apply light pressure on the lens as you move your finger in a circular motion.
Any streaks, dirt, or dust specks will be cleaned, provided the microfiber cloth itself is clean. Store the cloth in a dust-free environment after cleaning the soap.
If you’re on a hunting trip, there will be a lot of dust as you’ll be exposed to the elements.
Carry a small ziplock bag in which you can keep your microfibre to keep it from getting dirty. You should also carry more than one piece in case you drop one.
How To Clean a Microfiber Cloth
Just like with any cloth, a microfiber one will eventually get dirty as well. In this section, we explore the two ways you can clean it.
Let’s first go over why you can’t just put it in your washing machine with the rest of your laundry.
As mentioned above, the microfiber cloth relies on an extra-large surface area thanks to thousands of tiny fibers. The space between these fibers generates the static while maintaining the required hold to clean the dirt.
When you wash your microfibre with your other laundry like cotton, the fibers catch stray lint, filling the space between them, making the fabric ineffective.
It also means the next time you are lens cleaning, you’ll rub cotton fibers over it, and that can scratch the surface.
At this point, you may think you can simply wash the microfibre in the absence of other laundry and retain its effectiveness.
You’re right to an extent. While cleaning microfibre in a laundry-free environment is good, you can still use the wrong detergent and weaken the fibers.
That’s why you should avoid using strong detergents. Here are the steps you should take to clean a microfiber cloth without laundry-grade detergents.
- Fill up a bowl with lukewarm water.
- Add a little bit of hand soap and mix till the water is clear but slightly milky.
- Dip the cloth in the bowl and handwash till all visible dust and dirt is gone
- Don’t squeeze-dry it. Let it air dry in a dust-free environment. You can hang it in a ziplock bag if there are dust particles in the area. This will sufficiently protect the cloth.
If this feels like a lot of work, that’s because it is. You should not resort to this cleaning method often. It is only for when you drop the cloth into sticky, stain-causing, puddle or dirt.
Otherwise, you should simply spray a mixture of one part soap and ninety-nine parts warm water onto the cloth. This quantity is minute enough to keep the cloth from soaking. When the cloth isn’t drenched in water, you don’t need to air dry it too long.
Quick Solution: How To Clean Microfiber Cloth on the Go
Let’s suppose you’re taking a trip with your friends. You don’t know if you’ll have a clean bowl or a washing line at the lodge. And even if you do, you may not want to babysit the cleaning cloth while it air dries.
The best solution is to carry multiples, but you can also carry Griot’s Garage Micro Fiber Cloth Cleaner in a tiny atomizer like a Portable Mini Refillable Perfume Bottle.
Whenever you notice the cloth get slightly dirty, simply spray the cleaning solution onto the affected area and wash it off with warm water.
You can also replace soap with a spoon of this solution in the steps described above for deep cleaning your microfiber lens cloth.
Final Thoughts: How To Clean Microfiber Cloth for Rifle Scopes
Cleaning lens cloths can be tricky as they are delicate and require proper care. As long as you wash them in the absence of other clothes, you can avoid adversely affecting them and they will go a long way. Just make sure to follow the steps described in the article with the right cleaning kit. Here’s a quick recap:
- Add microfibre cleaning solution to warm water
- Dip microfibre in and handwash
- Dry the fabric in a dust-free environment without squeezing it
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