My first attempt to Camo a stock

[Hozzie]

I bought a new Tikka 204 Ruger as a lightweight walking around varmint gun, but it came with the nice wood stock.  I wanted to shed the weight of the wood as well as try my hand at trying to Camo a stock.  I was able to get a takeoff T3 Lite stock on ebay for $45 so it was now just down to a Hydro printing kit or spray paint. 

 

I really wanted to buy everything to hydro print as I like to play with things like this, but in the end, my $30 in paint won out.  I have to say, I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  I don't even really care if gets scratched for no more than I have in it, and a scratch will only blend in.  Anyway, if you have ever wanted to try it, it's pretty easy.

 

My results.

[Peace]

wow!

[LagerHead]

I'm with Peace on this one. That looks incredible. I don't think I've ever seen a rattle can camo job that looked half that nice. Any chance you'll share the technique you used?

[Hozzie]

Sure, no problem.  I basically started off using this idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn9wqmFAKo4  

I went to Walmart and bought 5 colors from the Rustoleum camo collection (Black (which I didn't end up using, but would if my base stock wasn't black), Brown, Dark Grey/Green, Light Green, and Tan.   I removed the recoil pad and sling studs before painting.

 

The tools of the trade so to speak.

 

The stock was black to start so I used a heavy duty scotch bright pad on it and put a coat of Valspar clear primer made for plastic on it.    I then cut out some basic shapes as he did in the video and taped them to the stock.  I then put a couple light coats of tan.  I then put more tape shapes on it and did a couple of coats of light green.  Once that was dry I removed the tape.  It will look similar to what he did.  I didn't want it to be that drastic of camo, so I then grabbed some leaves off of one of my evergreens as well as some dead sticks with a few fingers on them. 

 

I took a piece of cardboard and layed the sticks on them and sprayed to get a stick outline.  I then cut it out and used it with the dark brown to create some stick shapes here and there.  I then took an evergreen leaf and simply placed it on the stock in different positions and sprayed with the dark green.  You can play with how much it takes.  I just did those two items until I was happy with it.  After I was done I decided I wanted a little more tan, so I use some tan over the evergreen leaves in a few spots.  I think the biggest thing is to have some dark areas to use the evergreen leaves on.  That is what will make them stand out.

 

That was about it.  I sprayed some clear matte over it and called it a day.  I was amazed at how quick these paints dried.  Literally 5 minutes between coats on the base coats and not more than 2 minutes between coats on the lighter stick and leaf coats.  It was really very easy.

 

I think in reality you may be able to skip the taping at the beginning, but that was how I ended up where I was.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Hozzie

[Grand Torino]

Beautiful job Hozzie......nobody could have done a better job. Awesome work. :no1:

[TNWNGR]

I think you did a first class camo job there.

[quickbiscuit]

Looks great!

[Slpeod]

Excellent job, I'm gonna have to give it a shot now.

[Dolomite_supafly]

That looks great.

[KahrMan]

:up:

[DT INC.]

Great work!

[Fourtyfive]

Nice job !

[rugerla1]

Very nice job!!!

[bigun]

Man that looks great. :up:  :up:

[jimic]

Very nice

[mikegideon]

Nice job!

[Hozzie]

Thanks everyone.  It really was pretty simple.  If you have been on the fence, go for it.

[Omega]

Nice job, I haven't done any of my personal weapons but I did my M4 once before deployment.  After having to clean them when we returned, I just used camo wrap on subsequent deployments.  I have done a few ammo boxes though, but used stencils in place of the real leaves I used on the M4.

[Randall53]

I don't think you could buy anything that would look that good. Great job!!

[Hozzie]

Ha. Uh...no :)

[jpx2rk]

Very nice work.  You just saved me some time surfing the web on how to's.  I just got a Ruger American in 223 for a walking varmint rifle as well, and was sorta thinking of doing something to hide the ugly black stock.  Again, very nice work.  

[Pete123]

Nice job.  You really did well.