Anybody paint a barrel?

I'd beadblast it first, stainless is pretty hard.

I've done several guns with paint by Black. Comes in lots of earth colors, available at better art stores.

DDG

Clean all oil off first with alcohol or thinner, spray a light mist coat on first, that will give the second coat something to hold on to. Needless to say you should use a good quality of paint.

Depending on what grade stainless, it could be soft, stainless is naturally soft and gummy when machining. If it's been heat treated and hardened, bead blasting won't give you a rough enough surface for anything to adhere to it, try getting it blasted with aluminum oxide or something that will rough it up to give the "paint" something to cling to.
I've sprayed some lowers, uppers and other parts with the baking enamel from Brownell's, really pissed off the wife that i did it in her stove, it'll take a while for the smell to get out of it, so, if you do that, plan on taking her out to eat for a good number of nights.

SS used in rifle barrels is no harder or softer than blue steel barrels. Even if there are minor differences it has no effect on painting. Clean, prime, paint. Be prepared to repaint after a while as you will eventully get spots where the paint wears thin or chips off. Not a major issue.

I Duracoat stainless barrels frequently. No difference in painting stainless or carbon steel. Just blast, degrease, degrease again, and paint.

I've done a couple, but nothing that I was concerned about messing up on. Certainly not an expensive custom barrel though, like a Shilen. the few I have done came out looking good, but they required touch up over the years to keep them looking good due to chips, scratches and what not. Any more though, cosmetics don't fit into my list of things to maintain on most of my rifles, wood stocks are the exception. I focus my attention on keeping them functionally well maintained.

As for handgun, I do like to keep them looking nice. And it's a constant task, as I use my handguns a lot, and also carry them often, so they do get scratched and dinged up.

What's wrong with it? just don't like the color or trying to match it up cosmetically or something?

If it were me, I would probably take it to a good smith and have them do it, other wise you could end up having to have it completely stripped by a professional, and then added costs as a result.

But to each his own.

GS

I painted an AR-7 barrel flat black once using Rustoleum, after polishing out the rust, and degreasing it, etc. and believe it or not it came out looking fairly well as compared to before. I got the rifle and an extra barrel for $50.00 at a pawn shop quite a few years ago. In fact I just pulled it out of my vault and it still looks pretty good. Not exactly a Shilen SS but a painted barrel so to speak.

I used to frequent the Sniper's hide forum.. Those guys painted guns all of the time. You might look over there for some ideas and tips.

I did a few using Cerakote and a cheap sprayer and compressor from harbor freight. Cerakote is good stuff and is very tough ( at least the bake on stuff, never tried the non bake Cerakote which won't be as good but might be "good enough")? Make sure you degrease first.

The barrel I painted was mostly blued. I thoroughly degreased it then primed it with a rattle can. Waited a couple of days then gave it a couple light coats of high temp flat black BBQ paint. Let the barrel sit out in the sun a few days, or preferably a few weeks at least before you use. The trick to getting paint to last is to make sure that it is fully dried/hardened before you use it. Mine has held up well so far.

About 35 years ago, I painted a Sears/Roebuck shotgun with some rattle-can stuff called "Bowdull", which oddly enough, was made for painting bows. I don't recall if I degreased it or not, but I may have...probably did. That gun was blued, not stainless of course.

It's held up well over that time and has never been touched up since. Some areas are more worn than others, but I suppose that's to be expected.

It's held up better than the original finish anyway.

I've used the bake on spray paint from brownells on a couple stainless remingtons. The rifles already had a dull bead blasted finish, so I just sprayed them down with gunscrubber to get any oil and dirt off, then wipped down with denatured alcohol on a lint free cloth. Preheated in the oven to 120-140 degrees and sprayed on a light coat. It dries in an hour or so if you preheat it. Then applied a second full coverage coat and put it in the oven. Follow the directions and it'll give you a very durable finish that cost 1/20 of what a pro cerakote or durakote finish would cost you.