Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Experience with Gun Kote vs. Aluma-Hyde II?

I've used all three products mentioned, Aluma-Hyde, Cera-Kote and KG GunKote.

Of the three, I prefer the last two and I'll explain why.

Don't care for Aluma-Hyde on metal, too thick and pi$$ cans suck anyways (poor shelf life, clogged nozzles etc). I use to use it to cover the bare fiberglass found in McM barrel channels but good ole rust olem in a spray can works just as well at half the cost.

I've used KG GunKote for years, the 2400 Series and never had any issues like flaking or peeling like some folks have had (the secret is in the prep and handling of the parts). The 2400 series goes on very thin and is ideal for close tolerance parts and has some lubricity properties to it. Scope ring and base screws always receive this coating, prevents rust in prolonged wet environments. One tip for using GunKote on actions and barrels is to bake it at the recommended 350 degF for an hour, then lower the temp to about 250 degF and bake another hour or more. With flat black, I've never had color changes like the instructions warn can happen and the prolonged baking baking seems to increase it's durability. After blasting parts and degreasing I use to parkerize before applying GunKote, but their K Phos treatment has eliminated having to parkerize.

The other coating found on my bench is NIC Industries CeraKote, the bake on version. This coating is a little thicker and wears a bit better than KG GunKote. This coating works well for barrels, actions/bolts, scope bases/rings and TG/floorplates. Anywhere handling wear is expected.

For prepwork, I can't emphasize enough the need to degrease the parts to be coated before and after blasting. Only use new, virgin blast media in a dedicated blast cabinet for contaminate free gun parts. The bead blast cabinet down at Joe's engine shop is not going to cut it, I guarantee it's full of contaminants and oil. And one certainly should not be bead blasting auto parts in their bead blast cabinet, it brings in contamination issues.

Parts should be handled with new nitrile gloves with the care a surgeon gives in an operating room. Touching gun parts with bare hands will result in less durability.

Another tip is knock down all sharp, knife like edges found on gun parts and actions with emery cloth or a fine file. Don't go crazy here, just work the edge lightly so the coating won't be prone to wear or chipping. If done right, it's not noticeable.

Both companies offer excellent support, it pays to call and speak with their reps.

For small parts, build a jig to hold small parts after degreasing and blasting.

To protect threads, guard screws & base screws are placed in the action, ring screws placed in ring halves, and then blasted. Base/ring screws are then moved to be coated in this homemade plate made from a piece of angled alum (KG GunKote):

I have a homemade oven made from a 55gal drum that will heat up to 400 degF (don't have a picture at the moment). For small parts, I use a 250 watt heat lamp and an old pot:

For temp monitoring, my big oven has a barbecue thermometer and I use a RayTek infrared temp gun to verify surface temps:


Another tip is to preheat barreled actions before degreasing, lubricants often seep out of the barrel threads. Always degrease after blasting as well, I use acetone to wash out any embedded blast media from the metal (you would be amazed how much media embeds in gunmetal).

I've always used an external mix airbrush, one can can spray into the little nooks and crannies a spray can cannot and airbrushes offer more control and less waste. In the long run, an airbrush is far better.

KG GunKote 2401F


MtnHtr