Paint/Coating for waterfowl project gun?

[ArmedBear]

The basis for the off-season project is an 870 Express with a worn finish and stripped wood.

Low-budget is the word. I'm not a serious duck guy, but might go some next season when the dog is trained. It's easy enough in some places east of here.

My thought is to ditch the wood, replace it with camo plastic.

On the metal, though, with that rough, rust-prone finish, I'd like to put some paint or coating to make the gun blend in the brush a little better and protect it against surface rust at least to a degree.

Anyone ever use RustOleum Camo paint in a rattlecan on a gun? Blasphemy? Heat problems?

Or should I go with Dura-Coat or something?

What about on a black plastic stock? If I want to just camo the whole thing myself, will anything stick to plastic reliably?

 

[sm]

Spray on Bed-liner seems to work great on Wood-n-Blue Beaters.
Comes out to be a flat black and duck/goose hunters have reported nothing but praise for it.

This worked so well for them, general tough property duty guns were done up too.
[Used Win 1200 for $80 at the pawn shop for instance]

Some old Marlin 60s and 10/22's have this as well, and they too are great for the serious small game hunter, and out and about as property guns in all sorts of weather from summer to winter and being around equipment .
[Read: tossed in the bed of a truck, floor board of a truck and stepped on, and tractor duty...].

 

[JohnBT]

Friends of mine have painted shotguns with flat spray paint. Decoy paint seems to work just fine.

Rough up the surface with sandpaper or a wire brush and have at it. Spray on a base coat and then use some green leaves (got any houseplants) for stencils to add another color or two for a pattern. Or just do it freehand.

As far as plastic goes, just try it and see. If it doesn't work don't worry about it, it's the barrel that's usually sticking up in the air waving at the birds.

John

 

[sm]

Ironic,
All these years I have stayed with Wood-n-Blue as have other "old timers", and never has a problem flaring waterfowl, doves, turkeys, whatever.
We did not/do not use camo.

Some guns are shiny , as the blue is that worn, and we never had a problem with rust either.

WE did have fancy products, and guns still work, look fine and fell game.

Granted I am not in salt water areas, still I have been and no problems, just a tad more attention to inspect and maintain.

Of course I am the one that shows up with a Marine Magnum in a Orange jonboat wearing a baby blue sweat shirt to hunt ducks in...
I limited out...

Dawg looked at me and grinned..."we are going to be tacky today aren't we?"
"Yeah"
"Good!"

 

[JohnBT]

I agree, it just seems that the ducks down on the river can see us from a mile away if we even move a little or let them see our breath. The river is about 3 miles wide.

Parrot Island is about 26 acres, although the map below was drawn before the storms shrunk it a bit.

John

 

[nathan]

Norrels Olive Drab paint. A lot of positive feedbacks.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Give the nice folks at Brownell's a call. They've lots of options.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

Keep the wood stock, rough it up a little (light sanding) and paint it. That will save you like $50 on a new stock set.

 

[mugs79]

I have an 870 with camo stock and forend, I'm not sure what the name of it is but I can find a picture. I've been meaning to replace it with some nice wood furniture, if the wood you have is in good condition, meaning all it needs is to be refinished, no cracks or anything, I'd be pretty happy to trade with you.

 

[sm]

JohnBT wrote :
I agree, it just seems that the ducks down on the river can see us from a mile away if we even move a little or let them see our breath.

This is the key folks!!

Movement.

Waterfowl and other game birds such as doves and turkeys, have many times the vision of humans and they can spot movement "a mile away".

John also shared a bunch of other tips, as did others.
It is not the stock material nor pattern, just "flat", "drab", "natural"...etc.

That said, forever, folks hunted with wood-n-blue guns, and were successful, and still are.
I do not own camo, nor will I use it, and I use just bone stock guns.
I/we that do this, are using some woodscraft skills, not being dependent on physical equipment .

Location plays a big part. John is hunting where he is.
I will hunt flooded timber, reservoirs , fields, ponds, around Rice, soybeans and what the waterfowl are "seeing as habitat" is different.

Don't look up, as the white of your eyeballs is not a "natural" habitat color, it has been said forever...

Golf Courses down my way can get covered up in Geese and Ducks.
White golf balls and these waterfowl will come in no matter how many "white eyeballs" are on a driving range section.

We had just walked out, with a shotgun, and fired shots to run these off as to not mess up greens - not to fell ducks, just to shoo them off.
I guess we look like golfers as they shoo...only to settle on fringes of courses.

Know the habitat where you are...
While many habits are the same, critters do have this deal about regions for where they are.

Interesting how these critters do what they do.
Some of the best duck, geese, dove hunts and other hunts, were the one we never fired a shot...heck we did not even take gun to hunt with many times.

Just watching, learning and taking it all in.

*neat*

 

[ArmedBear]

Here's the thing.

While a polished blue gun, if oiled when appropriate, won't rust easily, an 870 Express will. That rough finish holds water and salts. Sweat on the thing, and it will rust unless you clean it off with Rem Oil, Break Free, Bullfrog, or something similar.

Where I'd be hunting is near the Salton Sea, not in a true freshwater environment. It's often hot there, even in the Winter. I've hunted there when it was 117 degrees in the shade. I've rusted two shotguns with my own sweat.

So... I don't necessarily want perfect camo, but if I'm going to put some colored coating on the gun to keep water and salt off it, it might as well not be magenta.

I'm not trying to "cheat" here.

That said, I could just get a brand new Mossberg 535, 100% coated in camo, with sling swivels, for $333, skip the trade I was thinking of making to get the worn-finish 870 and get some cash, and to hell with it. Then I'll have a tang safety, which I have learned to like from using O/U's.

Synthetic stock set, sling swivel cap, paint/coating, gun to start with all add up to enough money to make the whole thing dubious, since knockaround pumps are pretty cheap.

Projects might make more sense when the result isn't worth less than the money/effort put into them, unless, of course, they're intrinsically fun.

Hmmm...

I'll probably just use the 870 I have, unless I stumble on something else. Rem-Oil wipes work well and they're cheap and convenient.

Thanks all.

Bedliner does sound intriguing, for such purposes, though.