Best way to camo a shotgun?

[2000silverz28]

I bought a mossberg 835 a few months ago and I'm wanting to camo it. Whats the best cost effective way to do it. I'm not wanting to spend a fortune on it. I only have $165 in the gun right now.

[war4peace]

I don't know if the same concepts apply to a shotgun, but below is a site that shows how to paint rifles.

http://longrangehunting.com/articles/camouflage-paint-rifle-1.php

[Guest bkelm18]

If you want inexpensive, go to Walmart or wherever and get the Krylon or Rustoleum camo spray paint and a cheap laundry bag. Lay down your base coat then cover the gun with the laundry bag and apply your other colors. Creates a very cool snake skin camo job. Kind of ghetto redneck but it works.

[Guest Astra900]

Fish net stockings make a nice pattern as well.

[2000silverz28]

http://www.camoclad.com/

I found this searching google. What do you think of it?

[Guest Astra900]

Looks 'spensive. Me like cheap Krylon Camo systems spray paint. Easy to touch up, cheap . Did I mention it's cheaper? You can have fun making your own unique pattern...oh yeah and it's cheap.

[Guest bkelm18]

I've never been fond of the "photographic" camo like RealTree and all that. I think it looks too tacky. But if thats what you want, go for it.

[Guest billwilly73]

I want to camo one of my guns with the "Morning Wood Camo" pattern

nothing like stripper poses for camo......Yummy

[Guest 70below]

I've always been partial to using leaves and local flora for a pattern/stencil.....

http://www.gunnersgear.com/graces_camo/armory_cammo.htm

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

I did a pseudo-MARPAT job on my rifle. Instead of Krylon spray paint, I went to a hobby store and got some of the little cans of spray pint for modeling. I felt that I was able to get a better selection of colors that way. I also bought a can of matte clear finish.

I made stencils by finding a good-size image of the MARPAT pattern online, and printing out four copies. I took each copy and painstakingly cut out a single color using an Xacto knife. And then it was painting time. After doing all four colors, I added several coats of matte clear to protect the finish.

After three years, it's holding up quite well. I haven't beat the hell out of the rifle, but I haven't babied it either... it's been out in the field plenty of times. I'm not 100% pleased with the overall look of the pattern, but it's definitely different. One of these days I may redo the thing, and hit the scoped action while I'm at it as well. Maybe...

You may not want to go nuts with the MARPAT stuff, but you can make some stencils out of regular printer paper and go to town with spray paint. Finish it off with matte clear, and you'll have a pretty durable finish, plus the satisfaction of having done it yourself.

[bteague2]

I did a pseudo-MARPAT job on my rifle. Instead of Krylon spray paint, I went to a hobby store and got some of the little cans of spray pint for modeling. I felt that I was able to get a better selection of colors that way. I also bought a can of matte clear finish.

I made stencils by finding a good-size image of the MARPAT pattern online, and printing out four copies. I took each copy and painstakingly cut out a single color using an Xacto knife. And then it was painting time. After doing all four colors, I added several coats of matte clear to protect the finish.

After three years, it's holding up quite well. I haven't beat the hell out of the rifle, but I haven't babied it either... it's been out in the field plenty of times. I'm not 100% pleased with the overall look of the pattern, but it's definitely different. One of these days I may redo the thing, and hit the scoped action while I'm at it as well. Maybe...

You may not want to go nuts with the MARPAT stuff, but you can make some stencils out of regular printer paper and go to town with spray paint. Finish it off with matte clear, and you'll have a pretty durable finish, plus the satisfaction of having done it yourself.

Damn, that looks great. You didn't by any chance take pictures while you were doing it?

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

Sorry, no progress photos... it was pretty much a seat-of-the-pants project once I had hashed out how to make up some quasi-stencils.

Glad you like it... it kind of bugs me, though, because it didn't turn out like I really wanted it to. But getting the kind of detail and disruptive appearance of MARPAT would have been a royal PITA. If I redo it, it'll be because I've figured out a way to work a better pattern.

[bteague2]

Sorry, no progress photos... it was pretty much a seat-of-the-pants project once I had hashed out how to make up some quasi-stencils.

Glad you like it... it kind of bugs me, though, because it didn't turn out like I really wanted it to. But getting the kind of detail and disruptive appearance of MARPAT would have been a royal PITA. If I redo it, it'll be because I've figured out a way to work a better pattern.

I see what you're saying, but I still think it looks great.

[bvarnell]

I've seen the gun, and if Philip hadn't told me, I would have thought it was a factory job.

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

Well, shucks... thanks. I guess I'm just overly critical of my own work.

[poak]

I've never been fond of the "photographic" camo like RealTree and all that. I think it looks too tacky. But if thats what you want, go for it.

+1

Camo isn't so much about blending in as it is breaking up! Somewhere along the line that concept got lost on someone...

[Guest .45Jon]

I agree with you poak.....and to me the ''photographic'' is doing neither.

[Stainless]

Where do I get these t-shirts???!!!!

[Guest VolMickey]

I want to camo one of my guns with the "Morning Wood Camo" pattern

nothing like stripper poses for camo......Yummy

OooooK. I really had to look at that one close!

[Guest jwp]

DIY jobs are fun and give you something to be proud of once you get it where you like it. But, more often than not DIY jobs end up with a lot of frustration and heartache because the firearm was not prepared correctly prior to painting/coating.

One of the simplest things that gets overlooked is the cleaning of the parts. All metalic surfaces need to be oil and debris free so that your coating goes on smooth and lasts.

Also any portion of the firearm that moves or has gaps/openings needs to be taped up or plugged so you don't get any paint on any crucial mechanical parts or obstruting any ports or chambers!

[Guest billwilly73]

Where do I get these t-shirts???!!!!

http://stores.teamhard.com/StoreFront.bok

They have all kinds of neat stuff

[Mike.357]

I have posted this before. It is a Stevens Model 62 .22 rifle I got on the cheap from pawn shop. The stock was a plain black polymer type.

After removing the action, trigger and barrel and after thoroughly cleaning the stock of oil and dirt I sprayed it white. Used paint from WalMart. Some kind of Krylon made to adhere to plastic specifically. I then put strips of blue masking take on a piece of glass to cut them into patterns. I adhered those to the white painted stock. Using other pieces of blue masking tape I filled in the gaps I did not want black on. I then sprayed black onto the stock. After the paint was dry I carefully pulled off the blue masking tape then clear coated the rifle stock several times. Took parts of two days to complete the task. Mostly lost time due to making sure the paint completely dried before moving on to the next step.

final cost to do this was less than 9 bucks.

[Oh Shoot]

...

I like it, Mike!

And as long as you stay within a zebra herd, it's perfectly camouflaged!

- OS

[LA_357SIG]

I would not recommend doing it, at least with krylon. I did it with my Mossberg and while I was happy with the pattern, I wasn't happy with how thick all the layers were and how deep scratches made it look after a couple of outings. I didn't like the way it scratched up the magazine tube under the forend or how mild gun oil would start to dissolve the thin areas even after a month of curing and a couple of trips in the wife's oven. and it wore off alot around the grip and forend rather easilly even with a clearcoat layer.

I did however reparkerize everything and coat the receiver with Brownell's Alumahyde II and I like it all Black alot better. Plus it took me about 2 hours of scrubbing and wiping w/ acetone to get the paint off.

Edited February 23, 2009 by LA_357SIG
remembered some more complaints