Going out Thursday, the last day before the club's self-imposed moratorium during pupping season. All the guys on TV seem to get their animal on the last day and hour of their hunt. Maybe I'll be lucky too.
I used Rust-Oleum camouflage spray paint, although there are other brands out there that are just as good. I first wiped it down with alcohol to get rid of any grease and oil and then sprayed a base coat of tan. Once the tan had dried, I sprayed four-inch bands of dark brown so it had alternating four-inch bands of dark and light browns. You then find or make some sort of a stencil to act as a spray shield. I have some miniature palm trees in my yard and used the narrow palm fronds as my stencil. You lay the palm fronds on the rifle and spray sections lightly with the opposite color of paint your stencil is lying on. In other words, hold the stencil in front of a light tan section and spray lightly with the dark brown paint. Then move to a dark brown section and spray with the light tan paint. That gives a medium colored result. If you want a light pattern for the desert, spray the entire rifle with dark brown first and then spray it only with the light tan. That gives a light background with dark patterning. Do the reverse for a darker pattern. After you get the basic two-color pattern on the rifle, you can add a few areas of camo green and/or a flat textured white (don't use too much white...just a little) to give it some depth. Try it first on a piece of cardboard to see how much you want to dust in to get the patterning or effect you want. You really can't screw it up. If it come out too light, just go back over it with some more dark or vice versa. As I said, I used miniature palm fronds for my stencil but you can use anything that will give a pattern. Pine tree branches are good (flatten the needles out first using a board with a weight on top) or any small-leafed tree or vines.
