Camo Painting Rifles

[William Graves]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 8:02 PM, Tim S wrote:

William,

I'm interested in painting the .308 bolt-action rifle I purchased from you last fall. I am wondering how you guys paint the rifles (3 color). It is such a fine rifle, I have been hesitant to paint it for fear I would screw it up. Anyway, I hope all is well.



Tim,
Ref the paint, we first mask off any parts we don't want to paint; numbers on scope mainly and a piece of tape over the exposed area of the bolt while the bolt is closed.

Next we apply Krylon Camo (ultra flat) tan paint to all surfaces. A couple light coats work best.

For the camo patter and to add depth, we simply use a branch from some shrubbery and hold it against the rifle while lightly spraying either Krylon Camo green and/or brown. If I have only 1 extra color I use green as brown is brighter and darker.

Another trick we learned from 2/75th Rangers returning from Afghanistan was to use primer gray as well. (notice in desert photo of rifle)

Make sure not to plan where to place the branch - keep it random and NOT symmetrical. If you screw up, just re-paint. It will get some wear and tear, but again, you can touch up anytime you want.

Allow to dry and remove tape!

See you soon,
William

[scar]

whoever painted that top rifle did a damn good job.

[80sParatrooper]

Beautiful job!

It's funny, I have no problem chopping, dialing, and tweeking my weapons for all they're worth, but when it comes to Painting them, I'm terrified!!!

[Cleck]

The first part of conquering your fear of painting your weapons is admitting you have a problem. Since you have completed this step, the next is to come on out to the range and let us paint it for you.

[SAWMAN]

I totally agree with the previously mentioned techniques.

I've painted lots of rifles in my day. Back during Desert Shield/Storm, I painted my platoon's rifles (just the stocks). Back then, NOBODY painted their weapons. It was considered an "ORDMOD" and completely unacceptable. However, being the young, self-important SEAL "operator" and being at war, I had no problems deciding we needed the benefits of having our big black weapons camouflaged for desert use. It was such a hit, other platoons started doing theirs. Even the Group 1 Commander had me paint his weapon up. "Camo for everyone, we're at war!"

The way we did ours was to give it a basic color base, then just lay some camo netting over the top and spray brown or olive stripes across the netting. That left an effect of odd-shaped half moons in sections across the weapon. It was super simple and effective. (I think I have a picture of one of those paint jobs on my website)

In urban environments, I've used a lot of tan and gray. It really all depends on what area you'll be working in.

After painting up dozens of weapons over the years, there's one color I've grown to appreciate as THE MOST NEUTRAL and best-blending color of all time: "Army T-shirt Brown". That's what I call it, anyway. It's a hideous color, but I've found it's good for urban, jungle, arctic, desert and woodland environments. It just blends in and is particularly hard to find, which is the whole objective with any camo. So, I HIGHLY recommend that color as any base coat.

Other than that, I've painted one rifle with the a speckle pattern, which makes it blend in well with desert rocks. It's a good technique, but not as simple and effective from longer ranges, like the camo netting technique. I'll post a couple of pics for demonstration:

*Notice the inside of the front lens cover is always painted. Some guys miss that, but it's an important point.

[Dan]

Here are a few painted at GPS. In the 4th photo you can see my personal Rem700 in the backgound. Still need to paint that Tac bolt knob to match. these were each painted literally in about 15 min MAX. And they were then used in the course of fire for the day about 15-20 min after that

[Pyle]

Hey dan can you paint my FN? Its got a Hogue stock 4 now kinda curious on how the paint will stay on and all but I too HATE to paint it my self curious as to the answer Y though but after being around some well painted rifles at the school when I get there I am sure I will want it done. Hope to have a different stock by then.

Speaking of which I have a buddy who is wanting to go with me when I go through he is a civilian. No crimanal background. I am wondering how soon you guys will have a Basic through Insructor Course after I get back say Jan-Feb 2011 plus 3 drills I wont be able to miss so say um may juneish???? Maybe sooner who knows if I could schedule it between drills.

[murman]

haha our m24 is painted almost exactly like your examples! we started with a flat tan basecoat and put some light foliage shading with some brown and light green.

the key is to not make it look like anything, just normal "background noise" in your OE.
it amazed me that even in our first days of my sniper school class how scared dudes were to paint their shiny black rifles...

[RamZar]

You mean your M24s are painted like Dan's photo examples?

I admit that I'm one of those scared dudes apprehensive at having my shiny black rifles painted. It may be because of both the look & feel and remorse.

[murman]

well not exactly like the pictures he has up but very similar, the same train of thought was used. its one of the things they teach at the sniper schoolhouse at ft benning. it is pretty hard to stalk on a target with a shiny black rifle for more than a few reasons. black like most tactical rifles are colored just doesn't exist in nature..

when we painted our m24 we kind of went with the better to ask for forgiveness than permission thing and we did a good enough job that our SGM made it sop for all the snipers in our battallion to paint em like ours.

haha and we use the 24" barrel and i don't ever expect to get permission to cut it down.. lol

of course if you aren't ever going to be in a tactical situation where it matters than use your imagination, it is your rifle after all.