Well, I decided to give it a try. Have never gone quite this far with a rifle, and wanted to see if I could Cerrakote a rifle and have it look as nice as the real, professionally done rifles.
The practice piece is my oldest Model 70, my original XTR Sporter Magnum, 7mm Rem Mag. The stock was replaced awhile back with a Bell and Carlson Medalist, but man, the metal was in some poor shape. It was the rifle I took almost all of my deer with till I joined the Marines and even a few during that time.
I wished I had some before shots, but it was too ugly to take pictures of.
It wasn't actually too bad. I broke it all down, to include the bolt group, washed it all in acetone and let it try, just to make sure all the grease and oils were dissolved. After that, I blasted it with Aluminum Oxide to get a good surface for the paint to stick.
After that was all done, I gave it another acetone bath and got everything rigged up to paint. I hung all the parts and pieces and mixed up the paint. Used a Graphite Black from Cerrakote. Once all the pieces were painted, I baked it for 1 hour and it is HARD. Should be a good durable finish and to be honest, I am looking forward to shooting this rifle a little more again.
The pictures don't really do it justice, cause once I got it home, I tried wiping it down with a silicone cloth and its not a smooth finish like a blueing would be I guess, so it kinda caught up on the cloth some. Either way, it turned out decent. I know the next one will be better, but just like everything, the devil is in the prep work.
So, any of you all wanting to give it a try, try it out, pretty easy.
Now, I just need to get out and give this rifle some love on the range. Been awhile since I have rang out the old 7mm Rem Mag.
The practice piece is my oldest Model 70, my original XTR Sporter Magnum, 7mm Rem Mag. The stock was replaced awhile back with a Bell and Carlson Medalist, but man, the metal was in some poor shape. It was the rifle I took almost all of my deer with till I joined the Marines and even a few during that time.
I wished I had some before shots, but it was too ugly to take pictures of.
It wasn't actually too bad. I broke it all down, to include the bolt group, washed it all in acetone and let it try, just to make sure all the grease and oils were dissolved. After that, I blasted it with Aluminum Oxide to get a good surface for the paint to stick.
After that was all done, I gave it another acetone bath and got everything rigged up to paint. I hung all the parts and pieces and mixed up the paint. Used a Graphite Black from Cerrakote. Once all the pieces were painted, I baked it for 1 hour and it is HARD. Should be a good durable finish and to be honest, I am looking forward to shooting this rifle a little more again.
The pictures don't really do it justice, cause once I got it home, I tried wiping it down with a silicone cloth and its not a smooth finish like a blueing would be I guess, so it kinda caught up on the cloth some. Either way, it turned out decent. I know the next one will be better, but just like everything, the devil is in the prep work.
So, any of you all wanting to give it a try, try it out, pretty easy.
Now, I just need to get out and give this rifle some love on the range. Been awhile since I have rang out the old 7mm Rem Mag.
