Any rifle will benefit from routine maintenance and cleaning, not the least of which would be any ELR rifle. It’s one thing to keep a recoil-operated .22LR handgun that you use for nothing more than plinking in the yard clean, it’s quite another to administer diligent maintenance and cleaning to an ELR rifle that you use for competition shooting at ranges in excess of 1000 yards.
Doubtless, both benefit from cleaning, but keeping a rifle clean and in good shape is the main manner through which you can uphold a high degree of reliability, consistency and accuracy, especially at the extreme ranges invoked.
That being said, here’s how to keep your Victrix Armaments Scepter V rifle in pristine shape after sending a few rounds downrange during a day in the field.
The Basic Maintenance Protocol
After a day at the range, you will want to strip and clean your Victrix Armaments rifle. Here’s what you should know.
To clean the barrel, first you need to remove the bolt. This can be done by depressing the bolt release at the rear left-hand side of the receiver, then by grasping the bolt handle, unlocking it, and removing it through the rear. You can then fold the stock, which will give you access to the barrel without needing to remove it from the chassis.
You will want patches of an appropriate diameter for the caliber of your Victrix Armaments Scepter rifle, along with an appropriate bore cleaner, as well as some sort of lubricating gun oil or friction guard.
You will also, of course, need a rifle cleaning rod, along with a patch jag and a bore brush. Either a nylon brush or a phosphor bronze brush will work here, but going with the softer brush is the better option if the barrel is not heavily fouled because the nylon will be gentler on the bore than the bronze would be. Both are, however, acceptable options.
The first step is to affix the patch jag to the end of the cleaning rod, then pass a clean patch through or over the end of the jag. Soak the patch with bore cleaner, then pass it through the bore from the chamber end towards the muzzle.
This step is critical, as you don’t want to contact the muzzle crowning when cleaning the gun. Doing so can damage it, which can have serious impacts on accuracy, which is not a good thing for any gun, let alone a precision or extreme long-range rifle.
When the patch has cleared the muzzle, remove the patch, withdraw the cleaning rod back through the action, then replace it with a fresh, soaked patch. Run a few patches through the bore in this manner, until the patches come out clean or mostly clean.
Once your patches start to come out clean (or mostly so) you can proceed to the use of a bore brush. Soak the bore brush and attach it to the end of the cleaning rod, then pass it through the bore of the rifle in the same manner as you did with the patches.
This bore brush will engage the rifling, helping to dislodge any fouling that’s still adhering to the inside of the barrel. Once the brush has cleared the muzzle, remove it, back the cleaning rod out, and repeat the process a few more times.
If you have a nylon chamber brush, now is also a good time to scrub off the chamber. This will help dislodge any fouling that wasn’t removed by the patches or bore brush. A clean chamber will not only feed more reliably, it will also encourage more reliable extraction and ejection as well.
You may also want to use a cleaning cloth to clean the ejection port as well as the magazine well underneath the action, just for good measure. These areas, even if they are heavily fouled, generally won’t hinder the operation of the rifle, but as a general course it is still a good idea to keep them relatively clean.
While you have the bolt removed, you can also use a nylon brush at this point to scrub off the exterior of the bolt, with particular attention to the bolt face. Dislodge any noticeable deposits of fouling where you see them. Doing so will help ensure that the action runs as smoothly as possible, and will also help prevent premature wear of the bolt or its components. After you oil the interior of the barrel, apply some oil to a clean patch or rag and lightly oil the bolt as well.
Before you replace the bolt into the action, just make sure that the lower planes of both parts of the bolt are aligned, to ensure that the bolt engages in the action properly.
Keep in mind that the routine maintenance protocols covered here will not accomplish the removal of lead or copper fouling from your bore. For that a deep cleaning is required, with a phosphor bronze brush as well as a bore solvent rated for these types of metallic fouling.
However, we will not cover that here as some shooters actually prefer a certain amount of fouling to remain in their barrel.
One last note here for routine maintenance of your Victrix Armaments Scepter is that, if you are going to store the gun for a prolonged period of time before your next expected range session, you should run some oil through the bore on a patch. This will help insulate it against corrosion and help prevent rust.
Explore Victrix Armaments Rifle Platforms Here
That more or less covers basic, routine maintenance of a Victrix Armaments Scepter V, but if you landed here because you don’t have an ELR rifle yet and want to learn more about what we carry, take a closer look through our collection. Also, if you need a recommendation, or want to learn more about the interest-free financing that we offer, get in touch with us and we will be more than happy to help you out.
