Most combat-style firearms come in one color: black. For “style” this is a safe bet, as black goes well with everything. However, in life-or-death survival situations, one must make their weapon just as concealable as themselves.
Black is bad. Of all colors, black stands out the most and draws the human-eye to it before anything else. This is true for normal-spectrum vision, starlight/night-vision, IR/Near-IR/Thermal vision, etc. Anything appearing as black or reflective will stick out like a proverbial sore thumb. If you plan on wearing some type of camouflage clothing during any situation, you should consider camouflaging your weapon as well.
There are various means of camouflaging weapons to blend in with both the person wielding it and the surrounding environment. The most common method is painting. The cheapest and easiest way is via spray-painting. A single can of flat enamel spray-paint is around $5-$6 and depending on how much of that color is used in any type of pattern can be used on 3-7 long arms.
The following list of items I recommend for a spray-paint camo project:
A few rolls of paper towels
Paint s tripper of some kind; I prefer Naphthalene as it doesn’t deteriorate plastics (Acetone will work fine).
Latex, Nitrile or Dish-washing gloves
Masking tape (I prefer the 3M blue masking tape)
Cardboard or Card-stock or local foliage (branches, leaves, etc.)
X-Acto or Razor-blade
Permanent Marker
Primer (I prefer Rustoleum heavily-rusted primer as it’s dark red-brown and bonds best to Phosphated/Parkerized finishes)
Rustoleum or Krylon Camouflage Flat Enamel Spray-Paints (or regular Flat Enamel spray-paints) in the following colors (for woodland or multi-cam type camo):
Foliage Green
Flat Dark Earth (Tan or Khaki are fine)
Brown
Olive Drab
Egg-Shell or Sandstone (optional)
Flat acrylic or flat enamel clear-coat (optional)
Bailing wire or Wire-hangers to be cut into hanging hooks
If you’re not using local foliage, start by taking 3-5 pieces of cardboard or card-stock and draw random blobs on them with the permanent marker. Start with several small blobs roughly the size of pennies up to the size of silver dollars but make the patterns as abstract as possible (as least circular as possible). Increase the same design features (but different designs) in size on the next sheet around the size of a baseball. On the third design, make it the size of a coconut. On the fourth/fifth design(s), make them positive stencils with the bottom ¼ of the sheet untouched so the stencil can be held at a standoff distance from the holding hand. Local foliage can be used to substitute the creation of positive stencils.
Once all of your stencil designs have been drawn, cut out the first (negative stencils) and cut around the outside of the positive stencils (leaving part of the stencil to be held). Set the stencils aside.
Now, fashion some “S”-shaped hanging-hooks out of bailing wire or use wire-cutters to cut 5”-7” lengths from clothes hangers and bend them to shape. Make an “S”-hook for each weapon you intend on painting.
Next, get the gloves, masking tape, stripper and paper towels together and find a spot to sit outside. Make sure the day you plan on stripping/painting your weapon it is warm, sunny and relatively dry. Humidity is the enemy.
Before handling your weapon, clear it. While you’ll want to probably paint the weapon with a magazine in place, be sure to remove all ammunition from the weapon (both chamber and magazine, if any). Also make sure to use safe firearm handling practices when handling your weapon.
Grab the masking tape and tape off any surface you don’t want painted (sights, scope knobs, lenses, magazine windows, fiber-optic light gathering modules, etc.). Feel free to cut the tape with scissors or a razor to be a more precise fit. If you don’t want paint to get inside the muzzle-end of the bore, you can use a foam earplug to fill that in. For large-bore shotguns, a few cotton balls can suffice.
With your long-arm in your lap, don your gloves. Begin stripping all the dirt, oils and residue from it by dabbing a generous amount of stripper onto a thrice-folded paper-towel sheet and rubbing it over every exterior surface of the weapon to be painted. If the weapon has optics, make sure to close the caps or cover them somehow. If your weapon has any kind of dust-cover, make sure that is closed too.
Once the entire paintable surface of your weapon has been stripped, hook an “S”-hook through the muzzle-brake, flash-hider or front-sight block so that the weapon is hanging muzzle up. If your weapon has none of these, you can hang the weapon by the trigger-guard, being careful to not hang the weapon by the trigger itself. While this latter method will work fine, the weapon will sway a lot more in the wind and when you hold a stencil to it, so keep that in mind.
If you prefer to lay the weapon down to paint it, you can lay it on some newspaper outside and do it one side at a time. I, however, prefer to hang it as this provides a much easier method by which evenly coating the weapon. Hang the weapon on a clothes-line, a tree branch or any over-lying hard-point which can handle the weight of the weapon.
Once hung, begin shaking your primer until the ball-bearing inside begins rattling. Shake for 30 seconds to a minute before priming. Give the entire weapon a nice, light, even coat, priming it just enough to cover all of its natural color. Avoid over-priming or over-painting, as we don’t want globs of uneven primer/paint on the weapon (In some cases it can impede the movement of things like selector-switches, safeties, dust-covers, etc.).
At this time, depending on temperature and humidity, you should wait 5-15 minutes before top coating. Remember to shake your spray-paint vigorously 30 seconds before using and shake it again for a few seconds intermittently while using each can.
If you plan on using natural local foliage for stencils, follow these simple steps. Top-coat the entire-weapon foliage-green and let dry for 10-30 minutes. Then, lay out enough newspaper for the weapon to lay on and carefully lay it down on the newspaper. Randomly lay grass, sticks and leaves on the weapon that covers roughly 25% to a third the visible side. Now, spray some Flat Dark Earth (or Tan/Khaki) over the current stencils. Without removing the first natural stencils, add more random foliage until roughly a half to 75% of the weapon is covered and spray some brown over the weapon. Now, add some more natural foliage until roughly 80-90% of the weapon is covered and use Olive Drab. Finally, if you have any Eggshell or off-white enamel paint, spray some onto a paintbrush, cotton swab or other soft object and either dab or drag the paint in very small sections, 5-10 times per side (a little goes a long way when dealing in such a light color). Let dry 10-30 minutes and carefully flip the weapon over on the other side and repeat the steps above.
If you are using hand-cut stencils, allow the weapon to remain hanging and paint half the weapon Foliage Green and the other half Flat Dark Earth (or Tan or Khaki), allowing two to four large stripes or sections of each color visible on the weapon. Since it is hanging and you won’t be handling it for awhile, you can begin coating within a few minutes of applying your first topcoat (Foliage Green/FDE). Start with the biggest positive stencil you have (with the edges of the cardboard cut out, not the middle) and briefly blast around it in 2-3 locations on each side with brown paint (and 1-2 times on each the top/bottom). With brown, a little goes a long way. Don’t get too carried away with the darker colors. Next, switch to the medium-sized negative stencil (with the middle cut out) and in 3-4 places on each side use Olive Drab (and 1-2 times on each the top/bottom). Finally, with the smallest negative stencil you have, use eggshell or sandstone in 5-7 locations (and 2-4 times on each the top/bottom). If you don’t have eggshell or sandstone, you can substitute with Flat Dark Earth, Tan, Khaki and/or Foliage-Green. Feel free to touch up areas with too much darkness or too much of one color with stencils as you see fit. Also, keep a piece of camouflage clothing nearby as a reference if you’re trying to replicate it.
Do not use black paint. I say again, DO NOT USE BLACK! It does not appear in nature except in obsidian [or burned wood] and I very much doubt you’ll be trying to blend in with ancient lava-flow deposits. If you want a dark color for contrasting, I suggest something along the lines of dark brown or dark green, though Olive Drab in some paints is already quite dark.
Once you’re happy with your overall pattern, you can opt to clear-coat it. It’s not needed though it can help increase the lifespan of your paint job. I’d wait 30 minutes to an hour before clear-coating. A single light coat is all that is needed. [JWR Adds: I have used one or two coats of Krylon Matte for top coating, with great success. This both protects the paint beneath from chipping and it flattens any residual gloss.]
At this point, let dry outside until dusk (don’t leave outside overnight, as dew can form on your new paint job), then carefully remove the masking tape and while holding onto the sling-studs, the sling or the “S”-hook carry it to a spot indoors where you can hang it. I suggest on a clear space in your closet on the closet rack, or on a large nail driven into a stud or door-frame also can suffice.
Now this is the hardest part; do not handle or even touch your painted weapon for a full 30 days. While most spray-paint manufacturers claim that their paint dries within 24 hours, it doesn’t fully cure for weeks. Make sure it’s kept in a temperature-controlled room of about 70-75 degrees F, and since the paint will continually cure, put it in a room where you don’t spend too much time, or one you can air out frequently so any vapors won’t build up.
If you let it cure fully for 30 days, you’ll find a super-rugged paint job that should last you at least 3 to 5 years of regular use.
If you want to take the temporary, easy route, many camo-patterns can be found in rolls of ace-bandage type material. They shouldn’t cover working action areas or areas which vent excess gases. For winter, simple white cotton sheets can easily be wrapped around the weapon and tied off. Again, make sure these camo coverings do not cover working actions, moving parts (safeties, ejection ports or pump handles) or areas which vent off excess gas.
I hope this helps those interested, and remember, practice makes perfect! As always, keep an ear to the ground, an eye to the sky, keep your bayonet sharp and keep your powder dry.
