Rifle Care, Maintenance, and Storage

B14 Rifle Cleaning
July 13, 2020.
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Rifle Care, Maintenance, and Storage

Author: Aaron Ryan   Editor: Al Louangketh

As a hunter, sport shooter, and a moderator for the Bergara International Facebook group, I seem to always be asked the same questions; what’s the best way to break-in my rifle? What solvents and oils seem to work the best for protection? How do I best protect my rifles from the elements before and after the hunt? In this blog, I’ll try to answer these questions as best I can. Now obviously, there are many ways to accomplish the same task and this is simply what I have found to be helpful. I hope you can take some of this information away and find it useful.

Bergara Factory

Metallic rifle parts are coated with rust protectant before they leave the factory after proof/accuracy shooting and before packaging. This process of initial protection helps prevent rust and corrosion during transit.

Every Bergara rifle will go through a stringent quality control process before it is package to get ready to leave the factory, this includes being coated with some kind of oil base protectant during their transit and put in various humidity levels at storage facilities across the globe during logistics as they get process through customs and checks till they’ve reached their final destinations. This oil base protectant can be inside the chamber, barrel, bolt and even the trigger assembly.

I’ll start this topic off from when you first get your rifle home and have not done anything to it. Once the rifle is unboxed and the bolt is still removed, I first grab my gun cleaning supplies. I place the rifle in my gun vise and run a couple solvent patches through the barrel. Be sure to use a bore guide as this keeps any excess solvent from running into the trigger assembly and helps protect the throat of the barrel. Do not to pull the patch back through the barrel once you’ve pushed it through in the direction of travel the bullet would go. After you run your first patch through the barrel, you’ll see that it has pulled residue foul from the barrel, the foul can vary slightly depending on many factors. Don’t worry, it’s not a used rifle if you see a your patch smeared with foul stain, it’s quite normal and all rifles will be foul to a certain extent from various manufacturers. Repeat this solvent patch cleaning process a few times. Keep in mind, most of the time you’ll do the most damage to the barrel while you are cleaning it, so completing this step should be accomplished in as little as a couple patches.

Next you’ll want to remove the two action screws on the trigger guard using the appropriate tools, and remove the barreled action from the stock. If you are cleaning the BA13 Take-Down rifle it is a lot easier as you can just separate the two receivers apart, but mainly for this topic I’ll generally be talking about bolt action rifles. Once you have removed the action from the stock, grab your well used favorite oil rag and completely wipe down the barrel and action. Don’t go too crazy with the oil, a light coat will do. Also pay attention to the receiver and try not to get any oil inside the holes where you’ll later mount the scope base. It hinders the lock-tite from adhering to the surface if you want to use lock-tite or any other holding solvent for the scope base screws. Just be sure to get all of the initial factory protectant off and try not to get any excess oil into the trigger assembly, most of these are all metallic parts you want to focus on.

B14 Rifle Cleaning

Cleaning and maintenance of a rifle is the basic fundamentals of rifle ownership. Take care of your equipment and it’ll take care of you.

After you’ve cleaned and oiled the barreled action, turn your attention to the trigger. Now, there are many ways to accomplish cleaning inside the trigger, but I’ve found that Zippo lighter fluid works wonders for removing grime and oil from triggers and it dries without leaving any film. This is a trick I borrowed from Jewell Triggers. Be sure to check with other manufacturers if you have a different trigger installed as to what cleaners should be used. Once you have all surfaces cleaned and lightly coated with oil, drop the barreled action back into the stock and torque the action screws to 55 in-lbs or 6.2 Nm and you’re all set. This light coat of oil will protect most rifles for a good while, provided you have taken proper precautions inside your gun safes to reduce the amount of humidity inside the storage area by adding desiccants or corrosion inhibitors.

Short term and seasonal storage for the rifles are nearly the same for me because of the safes I use. The only difference is the use of a silicone impregnated sock that I put the gun into for long term (1 year+) storage. Again, I cannot emphasize the use of desiccants and corrosion inhibitors enough inside your safe. This will protect your firearms for much longer especially in humid environments.

If you are like me as it pertains to hunting, I really put my rifles through some tough weather conditions when I’m in the field. I’m similar to the U.S. Postal Service… I hunt in rain, snow, sleet, or shine. My rifles and optics can’t slow me down, but once the hunt is over I will wipe the big stuff off, and place my rifle in a secure location to dry out and reach room temperature before I put it back into the safe. Just before it goes in, it gets another light coat of oil. If it has been an especially nasty day, I’ll start over like I did when I first got the rifle.

B14 Hunter cleaning rifle

Putting your rifles through moist weather conditions and ignoring maintenance can spell disaster for ANY rifles.

I’ll have to give Bergara a nod for cerakoting many of their rifles for the 2020 line-up, it does make the job a bit easier when it comes to cleaning. Just because some rifles are cerakoted, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to clean it as much, I still wouldn’t ignore a good wipe-down after a drizzle or downpour if given a chance out in the field to do so.

I think I covered enough on storage and gun-care topics, so I’ll talk a little bit to cover the last question that I see at least once a week on the Bergara social media sites; What’s the proper break-in procedure for my new rifle?

Since there are many different ways from various manufacturers and opinions from shooters that found the best way to tackle this process, I will just leave the suggested advice from Bergara.online/support themselves;

“Because of the honing system used in place of the bore reamers, the Bergara Barrel has a mirror-like surface prior to and after button rifling, little or no break-in is needed.”

“If you still prefer to follow a break-in procedure, and many people do, we recommend the following:

Clean the barrel thoroughly after each shot for 5 to 10 shots. Then clean thoroughly after each 5 shot group until you reach 50 shots.”

B14 HMR Romania Aaron Ryan

Whether you do a barrel break in procedure or not, making use of every shot to hone your shooting skill is one of the fundamentals I like to practice out on the range to better myself in the fields.

Be sure to make use of every shot fired. I like to practice fundamentals when completing a barrel break-in as opposed to just slinging lead down range and cleaning. This makes good use of ammunition and hones skills needed throughout the year. In closing, I hope at least something found within this blog is useful and makes your cleaning, storage, or break-in process a bit easier. At the end of the day it’s about being happy with your Bergara rifle, ensuring that it retains its accuracy, and that the rifle can be used safely and reliably for many years to come. Shoot straight and I’ll see you in the field!

About the Author

Aaron Ryan is a field representative and project manager for Ammala Outdoors. He is also a contributing Blogger and moderator for the Bergara International Group on Facebook. He is a father and U.S. Army Veteran living in Germany.

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