A little bit of paint and everyones an art critic.
Ive thought about painting one of mine but am scared to death to do it. Got a 20 ga single shot I almost experimentd with and couldnt do it.
Its really not a big deal. Older, well used guns, especially cheaper, generic guns that hold little value to anyone (we all have one lurking somewhere), are a great starting point.
If you use the right paints, they can be completely removed with a little work if you really dont like it. Hoppes and Gun Scrubber, etc are all thats needed, and some steel wool makes it easier. I painted my well used $20000 MP5 camo for awhile, decided later I wanted it back to what it was, stripped the old Testors off, and then repainted it basic black using Brownells Aluma Hyde II, which short of bead blasting, is pretty much permanent.
MP5 prior to the camo job ...
After the camo was stripped and AH II applied....
AH II makes a great base coat too, and will allow you to paint over it with things like Testors or Krylon, and then remove them later without loosing the AH II base. The base coat on the Flectarn AR above was AH II in OD.
Do what you want with your rifles, but I am sure a lot of people would do otherwise with their guns.
Yup, thats pretty much it. It all has to do with what you want, and what you feel you need. Some people use their guns, while others fondle and polish them. Nothing wrong with either, as long as youre happy and what you do satisfies your needs.
One other thing about painting that usually isnt considered. It basically rust proofs your gun. Not to long ago I stripped an old Remington 1100 I had painted for over 20 years, and had been used constantly the whole time. When I stripped the paint, there wasnt a speck of rust on the gun anywhere it was painted, and there were also very few scratches in the old bluing, which basically looked like new. The only spots where the finish was worn or showed the effects of some light rust, were a couple of spots where the paint was worn off due to handling/use, mostly along the underside of the receiver around the loading port. I have a couple of "younger" shotguns that werent painted that look a lot worse.
