How to Clean Rifle Scope Lens: 10 Effective Ways

Accurate shooting depends on maintaining your scope lens. But we usually forget to do routine scope maintenance from time to time. Eventually, you lose a shot, causing you ultimate frustration.

So are you looking to know how to clean a rifle scope lens? Then this blog is for you. We’ll present some rifle sight-cleaning recommendations to help you stop making excuses for your dirty lens. All of them are short and simple and will help you hit your target.

10 Ways to Clean Your Rifle Scope Lens Properly

You may find many ways to clean your rifle scope. However, not all of them are efficient enough and may end up damaging the scope lens. So, before you proceed, you must also know the not-to-do facts that can harm your lens.

Below we have outlined some safe and efficient cleaning processes. Let’s get into the details.

Clean the Dust off Your Lens

The last thing you want to do is scratch up a good rifle scope you’ve spent money on. Before rubbing the glass with a cloth, you must dust off your lens. Each small bit of particle and dust causes a microscopic scratch in your lens, reducing its quality gradually.

Use Microfiber Cloth

When you’re in a hurry, you tend to grab your shirt but resist the urge. Toilet paper, Kleenex, and paper towels aren’t good choices as well because they’re overly scratchy and can damage your lens’ coating. You can remove oils and smudges off lenses with specially crafted microfiber wipes which won’t leave spots or cotton fibers behind.

Avoid Spraying Cleaner On Your Lens

You can easily clean your lens with water and a microfiber cloth, but occasionally, you need more force. Choose eyeglass or lens cleaning instead of Windex because it is too harsh and can damage your lens’ coating.

Spray the lens cleaning onto the microfiber rag rather than the lens itself. Also, use it cautiously because excessive moisture can harm your scope’s seals.

Learn: How to Sight a Rifle Scope?

Put the Cap On

Put the scope cap on while cleaning your gun. Using chemicals can harm the lens coating and watertight seals on the scope.

So put the cap on when walking to and from your hunting location. Along the journey, you create a lot of dust and can run into rain or even pollen. Closing the cap will protect the lens from them.

Apply a Q-Tip

Your scope has numerous tiny crevices that are challenging to remove. To clean ridges and small spaces, use a Q-tip. If you truly want to safeguard your lens, you can clean it without leaving cotton strands behind by wrapping a microfiber cloth around a Q-tip.

Utilize a LensPen

A dual-ended device with the sole purpose of cleaning lenses is called a LensPen. Since it effectively helps clean without using liquids, it is well-liked by hunters and photographers. The brush features brushes on one tip for dusting the lens and a pad with a carbon cleansing substance on the other for rubbing out smudges.

To avoid scratching your lens, ensure the cleaning brushes are clean of oil and dirt before you use them. LensPens are fairly inexpensive, so swap them out as needed.

Learn More: What is Eye Relief on a Scope?

Turn Your Turrets Off

Your scopes require maintenance on more than just the lens. Your turrets must be removed and well-cleaned if you are going to hunt in particularly windy or damp weather to prevent rust. Both a Q-tip and a microfibre wipe perform nicely.

If you choose to use the rag, ensure that you wash the turret once you clear your lens. After all, you don’t want to take the chance of having turrets dirt scratch your lens!

You can also utilize a LensPen on the turret if you prefer them. Using a different one for your turret is best to avoid spreading oils or moisture to the lens.

Take a Cleaning Kit while Hunting

Mother Nature is inconsistent. Therefore you always need to be ready for everything because you never know which situations you’ll encounter. You can clear the scope during the day by keeping a LensPen or microfiber wipe in your hunt bag. It’d be a tremendous pain to lose your shot due to a lack of a kit to remove dirt or raindrops.

Learn More: How to Fix a Foggy Rifle Scope?

Clear Up the Battery Compartment

When cleaning the battery compartment of a battery-powered scope, you must frequently remove the batteries. Moisture can enter any corner of your scope if it is exposed to external factors.

Batteries can start cracking within the compartment when they become stale or moist. You can clean it out if you notice the battery acid issue quickly enough. But if you delay excessively long, you may have to say bye to your scope.

For an added precaution against power outages, have extra batteries in your hunt bag.

Avoid Overdoing

When your lens is dirty, you should properly clean it. But you should also be careful and wash it as much as necessary.

The outside environment is filled with small dust particles. Thus, no matter how precise you dust the glass, you will still have little scratches after each cleaning.

Hence, you don’t need to cleanse your lens every time you go hunting. Leave it alone if you can see through it well.

How to Protect Scope Lens From Dust?

Flip up scope caps covers protect the lens of your scope from dust by creating a physical barrier between the lens and the environment. The best flip up scope caps are designed with a tight fit, which helps to prevent dust and debris from entering the interior of the scope. Additionally, some flip up scope covers are also waterproof, which helps to prevent moisture from entering the scope and causing damage to the lens.

In addition to physically blocking dust and debris, flip up scope covers also protect the lens from scratches and other types of physical damage. The covers typically feature a soft, padded interior that helps to cushion the lens and prevent scratches.

By using a flip up scope cover, you can help to ensure that your scope lens remains clear and free of dust and other types of debris. This is especially important for hunters and shooters who use their rifles in dusty environments, as dust on the lens can affect your ability to see clearly and take accurate shots.

Final Words

You can maintain your scope’s cleanliness, clarity, and proper operation with some simple tools and smart techniques (always start with dusting!). Take your time performing maintenance on your rifle scope; it’s quite easy. Remember that it’s a glass lens, not a steel barrel, so go slowly and be careful.

Hope we didn’t miss any of your go-to techniques!​