Which gun coating?

[Foxtrot1]

Looking at starting a new rifle build. This one is gonna be a little different for me, synthetic stock and full spray coating. Mauser action, bolt and all will be coated. Which spray coating do you recommend? I have 1 that's gunkote and 1 that's cerakote. Pros and cons to both.

Any of you guys do it yourself? I've been looking at duracoat aresol kits, but worried about how to media blast the action at home.

Thanks!

 

[cahunter805]

Proper metal prep/blasting makes all the difference when using spray on coatings. I like Cerakote.
I want to try Birdsong Black T coating on my next project though.

 

[6mm Remington]

Norrell's | Norrell's

molyresin.com

I used John Norrell Arms Moly Resin on my 280 AI I had built and I sure like how it's performed for me. It was nothing but rain for 5 days straight and I had no rust marks after 10
days of hunting.
g.

 

[diamond hitch]

I just had one done with salt nitride? Generates a low gloss finish and a hard as hell surface. It cost $400. Hopefully a longer finish than blueing.

 

[Jc2020]

I like cerakote I thought about getting into it my self but just haven’t done it yet

 

[Crash87]

Brownells Aluma-Hyde II epoxy works great. No baking. Use the sealer as a final coat. All you need to do is touch it up as you go but it resists marks pretty good.

 

[JRD]

My vote would be for Cerakote. I’ve used Duracoat at home. It’s ok for the money, but you get what you pay for. It doesn’t compare to Cerakote.

 

[RevJim]

I never tried it myself as I used a great gunsmith for 25yrs, up until he retired. I now use his apprentice who opened his own shop. anyhow, I have had some rifles ( mostly Predator rifles and such) Duracoated, Alumihyded, but only one was sent off for a moly something baked on. They all worked swell. The one rifle that had the $700 Brown Precision High Country stock ( which had to have another $250+ bedding, fitting, etc) I used another 15 years. The coating held up great and I "maybe" had 4 snowflakes on it...ever. No rain either! ha It just seemed that when I hunted with it, no bad weather/storms ever caught me or were in progress when I got out of the truck! I also never got to hunt Alaska with it. Lots of good choices/coatings/gun oils etc now. Good luck to you!

 

[JRMiller]

I use Cerakote for the most part. It has the higherst cost and the most prep work of all the coatings, but its durability is better than all others if done right.
Most people i see do it wrong in regards to thickness. Less is more with Cerakote. Most use a small/medium HVLP sprayer as thats what Cerakote recommends, but then spray too much on. Then they get drips and thick cerakote that tends to crack/flake at edges.
I have found that airbrushes do much better as its much harder to spray too much with an airbrush.
Also airbrushes have smaller air requirements, sprayers need a medium-large compressor.
Airbrushes can run well off of small pancake compressors or just regular airbrush compressors.
For me going from an HVLP to an airbrush was gamechanger.
Its not perfect, its a paint like all the others, just a very good one.

 

[utah400elk]

The prep work is really key. I had Cerakote fail within a month when done by Wild West Guns in AK. The shop manager was horrible to work with a very arrogant. It was a custom Marlin 44 mag lever gun.

Ended up having to send the gun to Wild West Guns in Vegas. I had met the owner when I lived in Vegas. He made it right and explained that if you don’t take extra precaution to remove all the oils from the metal it will fail. Long story short...they fixed the rifle (no charge) and it has been perfect since.

Find the right gunsmith and I believe the cerakote will last a lifetime. I have been very happy with the results on my gun. Inow have two guns with Cerakote and am very happy with them.

 

[Gut Shot]

I've used both Cerakote and KGI Gunkote 2400. The KGI is much easier to use and seems to go on thinner than the Cerakote. I've had no problems with the durability of either product. The KGI is supposed to cure at a higher temperature meaning that it can't be used on synthetic stocks. The people at KGI are also good to deal with.

 

[HighDesertSage]

Check out Duracoats new badass aerosol. Very close to cerakote. In all honestly cerakote is probably the best, but you'll need to go to a certified applicator. I had a quote done and it was going to be about $275 for a bolt gun. I went with the duracoat as it was only $60 bucks. It came out great.

DuraCoat® Bad Ass

www.duracoatfirearmfinishes.com

 

[Oregon_Ryan]

I use Cerakote for the most part. It has the higherst cost and the most prep work of all the coatings, but its durability is better than all others if done right.
Most people i see do it wrong in regards to thickness. Less is more with Cerakote. Most use a small/medium HVLP sprayer as thats what Cerakote recommends, but then spray too much on. Then they get drips and thick cerakote that tends to crack/flake at edges.
I have found that airbrushes do much better as its much harder to spray too much with an airbrush.
Also airbrushes have smaller air requirements, sprayers need a medium-large compressor.
Airbrushes can run well off of small pancake compressors or just regular airbrush compressors.
For me going from an HVLP to an airbrush was gamechanger.
Its not perfect, its a paint like all the others, just a very good one.

About a decade ago, I built an FAL and refinished it in Duracoat. I prepped the surface by sandblasting with alox, degrease with acetone (or whatever Duracoat recommends, I can't quite remember at this late a date), and I used an airbrush instead of a sprayer.

Tips I can offer-
1) light, light coats are better than heavy ones.

2) Practice your spray technique on some scrap metal or cardboard to get the distance and feel for the spray before starting on the rifle.

3) Anything threaded should get a light coat or two, then tape it off. I didn't do that on my first attempt, so I had to sand the threads and re-apply. It's not the end of the world, but it's a pain to deal with.

Durability wise, I haven't had problems with it, although it's not like that rifle is getting hard use. For blasting, I was able to use a cabinet because I did the blasting before I headspaced and timed the barrel / receiver. If you're going to sandblast and finish it yourself, definitely have or borrow a medium-large air compressor for the blasting cabinet. I tried to use my pancake compressor and it just couldn't keep the pressure constant. The pancake compressor did work great with the airbrush. Also, religiously clean the air brush after use. I had to buy two to finish the job.

 

[BWALKER77]

I like cerakote better than the other two choices.

 

[1100RemingtonMan]

I like Cerakote and I did my Model 70 XTR .264 Win Mag and hunted Alaska North of the Brooks Range AK Caribou hunting and it rained about 9 out of 11 days.

 

[elkhnter]

Just finished a Rem 700 with Duracoat. The gun had been through a fire, so no blueing left. Sanded it down, popped it in the oven at 200 for 20 minutes. Used their spray cleaner and scotch pad, then started spraying. I think it turned out great. I’ll get a picture and post it.

 

[RevJim]

( Not trying to hyjack the thread, however) I will add that for any uncoated metal, Blued or SS, plain old Outers Tri-Lube is very, very good! I clean the metal well, then I wet it down with the Tri-Lube and allow to dry. Reassemble and go hunting. I've never had any rust show up on me when it rained or snowed on me. Now, think of that? My very pricey, meticulously set up for bad weather rifle ( a Mod 700 Classic 35 Whelen AI) never got wet when I hunted with it, yet, wood stocked/blued or SS, hard rain, wet clingy early Fall snow, no issues. Just Howards Feed N Wax and Tri-lube. My rifles are pillar bedded and free floated too, and that helps.

 

[OleRedbeard]

Im a hobby gunsmith so to speak and have used Duracoat, Alumhyde, Gunkote, Cerakote, Krylon Rattle can and a few others over the years. I cant tell you which is the best but I can say that Cerakote is something that I have had the best luck on. However. Even it will not work the way it should if you dont do your prep work Blast your parts with aluminum Oxide and make sure to plug your barrel and chamber. The coating needs something to bite into and without a good blasting or at least at bare minimum a good scouring with sand paper you will see it chipping and flaking. Once you get it properly prepped in that department and have a decent tooth to the parts you will be painting its now time to degrease your parts that will be painted. Its all in the prepwork. Gas your parts out as many times as it takes and when you think its done degrease it and gas it again. When your done with that you can paint it and bake it.
95 percent of the work in any good gun coating is the prep work. If you skimp on it you will see runs and places where the oils in the metal have gassed out and mixed with the coating. It almost looks wet in those areas. Anything sprayed on and not baked will not be as strong as a baked on finish. I really like Duracoat and KG for stocks and such or other porous plastics or synthetics since you cant bake it on and its not subject to the same things as a barrel or action usually.
The same however applies to plastic stocks with the degreasing and scuffing them up. You can also get krylon webbing paint from hobby stores that looks really good over the top of whatever color you go with and apply it with good results as long as you sit the stock in or near a window to cure for a few weeks. I usually use the webbing paint over a lighter color base and then finish with a matte enamel base clearcoat. The main thing about the stock though is to let it cure.

 

[44hunter45]

Another option is Ron Mahovsky's MetaLife. You can Google it. It takes about 4 monthes to get your rifle back, but for $175 and shipping both ways you end up with a matte hard chrome finished gun. It looks like bead blasted stainless steel. They also do Nickle Boron and other finishes.

 

[antelopedundee]

Proper metal prep/blasting makes all the difference when using spray on coatings. I like Cerakote.
I want to try Birdsong Black T coating on my next project though.

I'm getting that as well. Doing my last rebarreling/gun project. The action is blued and the new barrel is stainless and that barrelmaker Hart doesn't offer chrome moly. The smith's go to guy for bluing isn't really a viable option at this time so we decided to try the Black T method. Ve'll see how she verks out. Ole.