Thoughts on painting precision rifles?

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you know, that is a good point, bobson. some paint does leave a "tacky" feel. kind of like you're touching silly putty or something. offhand, it makes me think dirt, sand, etc would stick to it. but then, maybe that's not such a bad thing if you're trying to camo.

i don't really like that feel, because when it's dry i don't need help gripping it. and when it's wet or i'm sweating, it turns into this slippery slimy feel.

fortunately none of my rifles have that type of paint. not sure what type it is really, but i've felt it on some.
 
As far as the stickiness goes, Ive had it happen a time or two, and I think I now have it figured out, at least in my case.

I use a clear flat lacquer as the finish coats when I paint. It helps even out the whole paint job, and adds a couple of layers of protection. Someone who knows paint recently told me, that enamels and lacquers are not compatible, and if you get to heavy handed with the lacquer, both the enamels and the lacquers wont cure fully, giving the tacky feel, basically, forever.

Now I usually just use two or three very light coats of the lacquer, and normally dont have the issue, but I have had that tacky feel on a couple of guns, and now think that may have been the cause. They dont seem to have stayed that way forever, but it was a while.

Cant say thats the case for all of the different paints, but Ive painted a lot of guns over the years, and its only happened to a couple, that just happened to have the lacquer overcoat.

With the guns that arent/werent sticky, I never noticed they were any different than the unpainted guns when it came to being slippery or feeling different. They have a little stink at first, but thats about it.
 
If painting a rifle actually caused it to lose $200 in value, then I would be expected to have to pay some one to take this rifle off of my hands.

mosincam.jpg

Instead, I was actually offered $200 for it one day. Since I hate to take advantage of people, I turned him down.

The base is spray on truckbed liner, and the camo colors are generic krylon. Note, no original Mosin-Nagants were harmed in this project. At least if they were harmed, it was probably 3 decades before I painted it.
 
That is the best kind of rifle to play with, one Bubba has already defaced. In original condition, that M91 long rifle would be a plus $300 rifle today, perhaps significantly higher.
 
I don't think Bubba did that. I think it was the importer. I inherited the rifle from my brother, and to the best of my recollection, he traded for it about 1978. It had the recoil pad, and the stock was still shellac, with some black paint trim that was supposed to make it look better. The action and barrel were already covered with some form of black paint. The sling loops had been filled in with some type of putty.

I do have a long barreled Mosin-Nagant that I paid $39.95 for back in the 80s. It has the 31" barrel and the hexagonal receiver. Refurbished by the Finns, it still looks almost new.

I would not paint a collectible rifle, but I think I actually improved this one. I think my Finnish M-N will stay original. Neither are actually precision rifles, but both will shoot a 2 to 3" group at 100 yards if young eyes are doing the shooting. I think I got lucky there.

If I had a nice non-collectible rifle and I wanted to paint it, yes, it would be painted. People who don't want to paint their rifles have my permission not to paint them.
 
Importers didn't generally sporterize the Mosins, Bannerman did way back when, but unless it's a Remington it's more recent. From the 1970's it was either a vet bringback or one of the Spanish Civil war rifles, perhaps something early from Finland. In all those cases, it would be worth considerably more today in original condition. Having said that, if you get ahold of one that already is in this condition, then it is an excellent candidate for customizing/playing with. You never know what you can end up with.
 
I can remember seeing gun magazine ads for an identical rifle. I can't remember the time period, but since I am 57, it was probably in the 60s.

I don't know if any of the original users ever painted their M-Ns with that weird black paint. The cut down stock, recoil pad, and painted trim were obviously non-military customization. I always assumed the importer did it, since I remembered that old ad. Maybe I will check out my small inventory of 60s gun rags.

I painted it because my brother would have liked it in this configuration. Several other people have liked it too, it has been loaned out several times to deer hunters. If it had sights that I could see, I would shoot it more myself.
 
Cerakote

I have done duracoat and cerkote. I prefer the cerakote. Its much more durable. This is a "beater" Mossberg 500 I found at a Pawn Shop for about $130.00. The poor thing was covered in rust and dust from top to bottom.

I stripped it down to bare metal with a media blasting cabinet and aluminum oxide.

Then used cerakote (air dry) for the base coat, stencils and both duracoat and cerakote for the subsequent colors.

I added a better safety button and a tritium bead sight as well as a side saddle to the buttstock.

It's now a clean rust free/dust free home defense shotgun. The color scheme was mostly an experiment but she came out pretty good if I do say so myself.

I wouldn't use krylon unless it was a toy gun. That's just my opinion.

Steve
 

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If you dont plan on selling it, then the resale value shouldn't be a concern. I picked up an older Remington 700 PSS and had a bunch of work done to it. I have about $4K invested in it at the moment. I looked at having it custom painted, but it was expensive.

I had my smith give it a flat coat of tan paint before he sent it back to me. I decided to just use Krylon camo paint. It was cheap, easy, and pretty durable. Its easy to remove if I was to change the scheme .

8uzu2y4y.jpg
 
If painting a rifle actually caused it to lose $200 in value, then I would be expected to have to pay some one to take this rifle off of my hands

Sounds about right. ;)

Coatings can look good if done right, on the right type of rifle, etc. It can also ruin a gun for me but we all have different tastes. I don't have any plans to paint any of my rifles.
 
Barrel heat from the sun, is not most hunting done in the winter when it's cold?

Shame Jack O'Connor is dead, would like to hear his response.
 
Its not a hunting rifle its a tactical rifle, banging steel and punching paper is what itll be used for, maybe coyote, but i live in southern new mexico and it is hot and sunny so yes, a black rifle gets hot enough in the sun that you cant hold it, and that has to affect accuracy in some way
 
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