Fieldcraft Does Anyone Krylon Camo Their Rifles Anymore?

diderr

The Patch Guy
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 15, 2013
1,020
128
Gillette, Wyoming
datapatches.com
I look at the precision rifles thread under the bolt action section and see most rifles w/o any krylon camo. Is the art of spray painting your rifle dead? My first rifle I had built had about 5 layers of krylon on it. My current rifle has a more "professional" type finish.
 
I do not. It hurts the resale value of the rifle. I had my last rifle cerakoted by the manufacturer and purchased the scope in tan from the factory. That way, I can resell them without taking too much of a hit.

So if you plan on keeping rifle forever, paint away. I would never buy a krylon painted rifle.
 
I do not. It hurts the resale value of the rifle. I had my last rifle cerakoted by the manufacturer and purchased the scope in tan from the factory. That way, I can resell them without taking too much of a hit.

So if you plan on keeping rifle forever, paint away. I would never buy a krylon painted rifle.

Nope, that's one of the nice things about Krylon, comes right off with a bit of acetone etc and elbow grease. In about 30min, the rifle and/or scope looks like it was never painted.
 
I do not. It hurts the resale value of the rifle. I had my last rifle cerakoted by the manufacturer and purchased the scope in tan from the factory. That way, I can resell them without taking too much of a hit.

So if you plan on keeping rifle forever, paint away. I would never buy a krylon painted rifle.

I know what you're saying, but I've bought several Krylon-painted rifles. I can strip it off if I want, but it makes the rifle "broken in already" in my eyes and I'm less fussy about dinging it up and USING it.
 
OP funny that you bring this up, I just rattle canned a few of my stocks back to solid colors. I am using Rustoleum with the fine texture. Some black some khaki (desert bisque).

Just that I get bored and its cheaper than buying another rifle. lol.
 
image.jpg
Got 3 layers of krylon on this one.
 
Nope, that's one of the nice things about Krylon, comes right off with a bit of acetone etc and elbow grease. In about 30min, the rifle and/or scope looks like it was never painted.

I know what you're saying, but I've bought several Krylon-painted rifles. I can strip it off if I want, but it makes the rifle "broken in already" in my eyes and I'm less fussy about dinging it up and USING it.

I admit that to Krylon a rifle, it looks cool and can help with many different applications (battle, hunting, etc.). However, for everyone who is removing the Krylon from their rifles prior to selling it, are you disclosing that this was done? Are you willing to say "I had it painted, then used acetone and elbow grease to remove it." Based on my body shop days, there is no way the underlying factory finish is unaffected. No way. Once you apply an aftermarket finish, you risk permanent damage.

But I am curious, does anyone have any photos showing where this was done? Can someone provide evidence that things are different between a body shop automobile finish and a rifle?
 
I admit that to Krylon a rifle, it looks cool and can help with many different applications (battle, hunting, etc.). However, for everyone who is removing the Krylon from their rifles prior to selling it, are you disclosing that this was done? Are you willing to say "I had it painted, then used acetone and elbow grease to remove it." Based on my body shop days, there is no way the underlying factory finish is unaffected. No way. Once you apply an aftermarket finish, you risk permanent damage.

But I am curious, does anyone have any photos showing where this was done? Can someone provide evidence that things are different between a body shop automobile finish and a rifle?

There have been a few threads on it here over the years, at least a few of them had pictures. There were also a number of recommendations on what products/techniques to use. This is the first one I came to, but it may not be the right one (with pictures)

http://www.snipershide.com/shooting...413-best-product-remove-krylon-paint-job.html

I have seen for sale ads indicate that krylon was removed from an item. Obviously if it was completely removed and no "evidence" remained, I don't know that every seller would tell you it had been rattle-canned.

I agree with you that even though Acetone tends to be the go-to, I believe I'd try something else first. On one of my rifles, I don't bother stripping it, I just re-spray it. If I ever sell it, the pics will be of it rattle-canned and I'll leave it up to the buyer if they want me to strip it down or take some off the price so they can do it or whatever. Even though it's removable, it's still a "big thing" to slap a $4 paint job on an expensive rifle. My GAP/Surgeon was rattle-canned by the previous owner, but he did such an amazing job on it that I don't think I'll ever mess with it, unless I run out of stuff to spend money on and have the chassis re-done by one of the pro painters here.
 
If you really use your gun for work hell yes. the more mine scratches, the touch ups make it blend even better. all of it is done down to my scope. Rattle can away. All of mine are. And no I wouldn't sell any of my guns. And I don't go cheap. Bad to the bone........If your afraid of scratching your stuff, maybe it's just for looks. Jmo
 
Rattle can all my guns, its the way to go IMO. If I scratch krylon off of my gun I didn't just ruin an expensive paint job, I just need to touch it up later on.


As to the removal and it affecting the original finish, as was stated, you usually can't even tell it was kryloned if you do it right. I picked up a Rem 870 for about $120 from Gander mt because it had been rattle canned and quite frankly looked like shit. Got it home and stripped it in about 30 mins and it looked brand new. I'm guessing the previous owner painted it when it was new. I know it has no affect on the original finish other than cleaning it since every paint article you see out there recommends to use acetone to remove any oil,etc as part of preparation and cleaning.
 
I have done several for myself and a few other LEO's, will post pics later on. One tip, do yourself a favor, order some Aerovoe paint from them direct or Brownells. It is a much better paint and on the hard use guns I have done, it holds up much better than Krylon. I have a cerakoted AI AX in RAL 8000, but I am painting it this week, hopefully it will come out looking like an Afrika Korps Panzer when done.
 
Last edited:
Not a precision rifle, but I did spray my AR build with krylon:

944375_10153043783880413_2131366515_n.jpg


Love the way it turned out, it was like a three day project because it was done during the late summer, which is about the worst time of the year to paint anything.

I degreased it all, let it dry for about six hours in front of a fan. Stuffed all the openings full of paper towels and taped up anything I didn't want painted, then laid on a base coat of tan (with about an hour dry time in between each individual coat of tan color, I think there were three or four to get a good, uniform base layer). After a full day of drying, I cut up a mesh laundry bag and started spraying on green and brown. It sort of changes color/shade with the amount of ambient light.
 
I had planned on only spraying the stock, but it was still too black. I have two coats of OD, one coat of tan striping over it with a coat of clear on top. After reading other posts here, I think I should have laid on a couple more base coats. Doesn't look as nice as the other rifles pictured in this thread, but I had fun.
 

Attachments

  • 20140528_133052.jpg
    20140528_133052.jpg
    981.8 KB · Views: 165
I do not. It hurts the resale value of the rifle. I had my last rifle cerakoted by the manufacturer and purchased the scope in tan from the factory. That way, I can resell them without taking too much of a hit.

So if you plan on keeping rifle forever, paint away. I would never buy a krylon painted rifle.

I Krylon for just the opposite reason. Cerakote/Duracoat is permanent and/or difficult to remove. What do you do when it gets chips or gouges? I can touch up spray paint in a few minutes. I recently sold a scope that had been on a spray painted rifle. I disclosed that the scope had been painted, but would you be able to tell if I didn't?

http://www.snipershide.com/shooting...per-pst-6-24x50-mil-mil-ffp-$740-shipped.html

The paint looked terrible and I was scared to see the finish of the scope, but after removing with acetone I was pleasantly surprised. The paint did a fair job of protecting the scope. I'm replacing that Vortex with a Steiner, which will also be spray painted.