Something old into something new

This time of year, while I'm taking a hiatus from predator hunting, I find myself fishing with my kids, hiking with my buddies, and camping with my family. But the one thing concerning predator hunting that I am ALWAYS doing is thinking about and looking for gear. Be it better ammo, different calls, or a more efficient shoulder bag, I am constantly on the lookout for something new to try out. A great place to find new gear is at yard sales, which can be found aplenty throughout any town or city in America during these warm summer months. I recently picked up a new shoulder bag for $2, a buddy of mine just picked up a brand new ghillie suit for $80, and my Dad recently scored a tremendous deal: a Mossberg 500 12ga pump shotgun for $50!

I generally try to buy only lightly used or brand new equipment when I can, but sometimes, as in the case of my Dad's new shotgun, the deal was too good to pass up but the equipment was less than beautiful. The pump action was stiff and the chamber was filthy, but a little Hoppe's No.9 and some elbow grease fixed that problem, and soon my Dad had it working smooth as glass. A little stain and a good cleaning job on the wood stock and that was fixed as well, but the finish on the metal left a lot to be desired. Since I had painted a number of my own firearms and a few others for friends, my Dad turned the shotgun over to me for a little "Rizzo Pinestraw Paint" - and the results were pretty good.

I removed all the wood and sanded off all the rust, then wiped the whole thing down with alcohol. Normally I paint the stock as well, but my Dad wanted the contrast of the wood stock. I taped up everything that shouldn't have paint on it, like the action and chamber. Then out came the cans of Krylon Camo spray paint!



I started off with a base color of Khaki, and let it try for a good 10 minutes. The warmer the weather, the less dry time you'll need. Krylon dries especially quick, at any rate.



By applying small pine boughs and spraying through them, you can achieve a "pinestraw" look. Fake grass from a hobby store or an old straw broom will also work well. I applied the OD Green color second, then the Brown color after a 15 minute dry time, followed by a few spot touch-ups with Khaki.



Put it all back together and install the stock and voila! My Dad's got a great looking and great functioning predator hunting shotgun.



A can of this paint can go for around $5, but you can do a couple of firearms with each can and still have some left over. It's cheaper than Duracoat, and certainly cheaper than having it dipped or professionally painted. If you let it harden for about 24 hours before taking it out into the field then you'll get a good life span out of the paint. And when it starts to chip or wear off from use, just touch it up from the comfort of your garage!




To see more of my paint jobs, as well as get some design ideas from other hunters, and to read a full report on some other camo processes, please visit my thread on AR15.com, titled "The Disappearing Firearm". Then get your rattle can out and get to work!