Painting a Saiga?

[DavidMS]

After deciding against converting my Saiga .223 (it handles well and is more accurate than I expected), I got curious about painting it. The goal is to make it look like less like an Evil Black Rifle. I did some Googling and found there are no shortage of paint choices. However I am unable to remove the trigger as its riveted in.

My plan is to take it apart as far as I can (detail strip), lightly sand, degrease, tape (Muzzle, breach, non-removable FCG parts) and then paint.

Has anyone painted a stock Saiga? If so, how did you work around the riveted trigger? Would it be better to send it out for duracoating / ceracoating?

 

[dh1633pm]

I painted mine. Left it all assembled. Used a camo pattern. There are lots of articles on the web about painting rifles and all sorts of tricks to give nifty patterns. I painted it all from end to end.

 

[Sunray]

"...better to send it out..." Cost you more and somebody would still have to strip it. I'd just tape and paint with Krylon.
The stock wood or synthetic?

 

[DavidMS]

On the Saiga...

It has synthetic furniture.

 

[Sunray]

Hi. It only matters because you'd use different paint and you'd have to lightly sand first.
Krylon is for metal and synthetics, but they sell camouflage colours specifically for firearms. Isn't stupid expensive either. Home Depot sells it. Not the only place, of course.
http://www.krylon.ca/products/
That BBQ paint is made specifically for Al. Flat black for all your Al hiding needs. snicker.

 

[MIL-DOT]

I'd leave it alone before you screw it up. If it's ''stock", then it's already NOT an ''evil black rifle", it's just a little 10-round carbine. But it sounds like you're determined to just blow some money here, so if you absolutely must, I would go with Sunray's advice and just Krylon it,as is.