Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Refinishing or darkening bright stainless steel

I have a very brightly polished stainless M77MKII which I would like to darken to make it less visible. I would like to do it myself and would prefer something simple with minimal need for disassembly. One suggestion I saw was to warm up the barrel and action with a heat gun/hairdryer and apply Birchwood Casey's Aluminum Black. The after photos looked good but photos can be deceptive. Has anyone tried Aluminum Black or used another treatment that was easy to apply? Thanks.

Krylon and hold The Fluff. Hint.............

Have you thought about Renaissance wax? If you put it on thick it will dull the shine and it would be easy to remove later.

Paint is easy to remove and touch up is effortless.

A guy at our public range likes to go full-on Sniper with what looks like camo patterned medical tape on his barrel.

As an aside, does aluma-hyde stick as well to steel as aluminum?

I used a sanding pad to give my MKII stainless a brushed look finish. Knocked the brightness down.

Yup

Rustoleum high heat black paint seems to work real well on stainless muzzle brake and a synthetic stock I put it on.

I used (I think) a Scotch-brite pad on a very shiny New Vaquero years ago and it made a big difference. I wonder however how much it would affect visibility of the rifle overall at distance. I like the wax idea as well but again, will removing the sheen do enough? My pretty white face is very visible without covering or paint.

As others have said - rattle can.
If you want to keep the silver look, Rust-Oleum makes a dull aluminum color (I'm sure others do as well).

Why do you want to do it? Are you afraid that it is going to spook game? If so, let me tell you, it won't.

If you are dead set on doing something like that, then just use Krylon. At least that way it is easy to take off by the next owner without causing permanent damage.

Flashman, IME the color isn't really a big deal. I used a Scotch-brite pad on the barrel of my MKII and it dulled it plenty enough. I wanted the brushed finish look. My son had his stainless MKII bead blasted and it looked great and is dull.

Glass bead blast

Bead blast.

I see several beat me to it

Sand blast will turn it more of a matte gray than bead blast, which is more satin silver.

This is all controlled by PSI and the size and type of blasting media....but whoever does it needs to understand that the media gets into every nook, crack and crevice. Things will need to be taken apart to blast and to clean