Page 1 of 1

DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 12:01 am
by Crow
Hey folks, thought I'd post some pics of the rattlecan camo job I did on my Ruger American .308 stock. I'm pretty stoked on how it came out. Anyone else try something like this?
Crow

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:02 am
by CDFingers
Here's my Mosin camo target rifle. I made it using leaves from my yard and cans of Rustoleum auto paint. It is 7.62x54r original caliber made from an m44. It uses a Czech machine gun barrel that's chrome lined. Tack driver good for 40,000 rounds.
Image

CDFingers

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:05 am
by tonguengroover
Switched out stock on my old 10-22 and got a new stock for the stainless. It was lots of fun. I guess I could have just done the old wooden stock. Also switched out trigger groups as well.
Had an old scope laying around to play with.

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:43 am
by Crow
tonguengroover wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:05 am Switched out stock on my old 10-22 and got a new stock for the stainless. It was lots of fun. I guess I could have just done the old wooden stock. Also switched out trigger groups as well.
Had an old scope laying around to play with.
That camo is perfect for that tree environment! How do you like that Magpul stock? I just took mine off my Ruger and put the original stock back on (the one that I camoed) because it was too heavy for my shoulder with my current bout of tendonitis.
-Crow

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:53 am
by highdesert
Very nice ! Camo to match the environment, not everything needs to be FDE.

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 12:04 pm
by tonguengroover
Crow wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:43 am
tonguengroover wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:05 am Switched out stock on my old 10-22 and got a new stock for the stainless. It was lots of fun. I guess I could have just done the old wooden stock. Also switched out trigger groups as well.
Had an old scope laying around to play with.
That camo is perfect for that tree environment! How do you like that Magpul stock? I just took mine off my Ruger and put the original stock back on (the one that I camoed) because it was too heavy for my shoulder with my current bout of tendonitis.
-Crow
I like it lots because one can adjust the length of pull. The regular stocks seem to short for me.

How did you get that pattern on yours?

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 4:49 pm
by Crow
[/quote]

I like it lots because one can adjust the length of pull. The regular stocks seem to short for me.

How did you get that pattern on yours?
[/quote]

I am a little on the shorter (compacter?) side at 5'6" so the factory Ruger stock actually fits me pretty well- as much as I hate to admit it, all my rifles from when I was a kid still feel perfect the way my dad trimmed the stocks, haha.
My method for camo is to tape off anything I don't want painted, then I sort of hapharzardly wrap the stock in yarn here and there to get the negative space lines. I prefer yarn because it's a little fuzzy, and the lines come out less distinct than they would with string.
Next, I spray the stock with tan, trying to keep the coat light and sometimes leaving a bit of the black stock showing through. Then I go over it again with "army" green, trying to leave a little bit of tan peeking through here and there.
Next, I take the tan again and press the nozzle lightly until it starts to "spit" so that I can spatter a bit of "mist" and "driplets" over the green in spaces. This provides texture.
Next I hit the whole thing with some passes of satin black, but from a distance so that it's more of a misting. This adds some shadow and contrast.
Next I do the "spit" technique with the Army green and then finish with a "spit" pass with the black.
Then I clear coat the whole thing 3 times with matte clear coat.
When it's nice and dry I unwrap the yarn. I find that the real MVP of this process is the yarn which, again, softens the neg space lines, but it also sucks up the tan first coat under the yarn so that the lines have a two-tone look even though most of the tan on the stock will be covered by green and black. I always do the lightest color first for this reason. I'll attach a close-up of the lines.
-Crow

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:57 am
by tonguengroover
I'm gonna try that on my Zestava Mark X 25-06. The stock has been beat up from my reckless days of white tail hunting.

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 11:38 am
by Crow
tonguengroover wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:57 am I'm gonna try that on my Zestava Mark X 25-06. The stock has been beat up from my reckless days of white tail hunting.
Awesome. You can use whatever colors you want, but I'd always start with the lightest color as your first coat. Also, I feel like the old construction adage "you can't cut the board longer" applies to spray paint as well- go slow, test spray a bit of cardboard off to the side first, especially to get the feel for the "splatter" coats.
Post a pic when you're done!
Crow

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:14 pm
by CDFingers
Any scuffs on the stock will just disappear. The one above I used was totally hosed before I bedded it and painted it.

CDFingers

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 1:34 pm
by tonguengroover
CDFingers wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:14 pm Any scuffs on the stock will just disappear. The one above I used was totally hosed before I bedded it and painted it.

CDFingers
What did you bed it with?

Re: DIY Camo on my rifle

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 1:43 pm
by CDFingers
I used Acraglas. I used Johnson's Paste Wax to keep the glas where I wanted it, as well as using masking tape to keep the glas off the wood. Here's a thread that has the narrative left, but all but one of the pics died in the multiple crashes we've suffered. Maybe some narrative will be instructive.

viewtopic.php?p=547759#p547759

CDFingers