Taking the shine off a stock and grip

[Scoutfish]

So I went to my local outfitter and bought a shotgun yesterday. Just your basic Mossberg 500. 28" ported vent barrel.

The place was having a huge sale and - like an idiot - I waited til around 4pm to go instead of being there early on.

My original plan was to pick up a Remmington 870, but they SOLD OUT of the Rem 870's 877's and a few others.
Just a few tacticals with 18" barrels and pistol grips left.

Most of the Mossberg 500's and 535's were gone too. Mostly just tacticals.

They were selling alot of Benelli's too just because they were mostly what they had.

So anyways, I picked up the 500 and bought it.

They only thing I do not like about the gun is the VERY HIGH GLOSS finish on the stock and foregrip.

Granted, if deer or turkey spots the finish of the stock and runs away......the I have even bigger issues in concealing myself, but still...I just don't like the finish.

Thinking about buying one of those camo kits like this:

http://www.mossyoakgraphics.com/shotgun ... n-kit.html

Or taking some steel wool and rubbing down the shiny finish and either using a black paint or dull finish stain or just dull finish sealer.

Naturally, I do not want to screw the gun up, but the high gloss shine just doesn't sit well with me. I feel guns should have a flat or dullish finish.
Just my own quirky feeling.


So anyways, have any of you ever done this? Taken down the shine?

Would I be better off getting the camo skin?


And in case you were wondering....YES! I did get the gun at such a good price as to buy the high gloss instead of wating a few weeks for more to come in at non sale prices. I saved almost $120.00 on the final price.


Thanks - Mark

[Dan Salmon]

Mark,

I'd take the time to disassemble the gun, strip the finish with something like Zip-Strip or Citri-Strip and the apply an even finish of Spar Marine Teak Oil or something of the like.

You can knock down the finish with steelwool and then finish with Rottenstone, but this is really only thinning the existing finish where as completely stripping and refinishing with a low gloss marine teak oil with have the benefit of a completely sealed stock and not a marginalized factory finish.

[shaman]

Take 4/0 steel wool. Start somewhere where it won't be noticed and lightly buff the shine off. Just don't go too far too fast. A little buff is all it takes.

I've done this a bunch of times. The problem with varnish is that a high gloss usually looks cheezy when its done. However, the high gloss finish is the strongest. So I use high gloss and then buff it down to a matt finish. If you want to shine it back up later, use paste wax.

[Scoutfish]

Thanks.

I also thought about taking all te clear off, sanding some more and using a very dark stain .

Back when I was younger and building military models, I used to buy regular shiny finish paints ( more color variety) and then go back and use a coat of "dullcoat" to take away the shine.

Of course, this came in a 5 oz bottle with a model brush built into the lid. It would take me 20 hours to try this with the gun unless it was sold in a bigger bulk can.

[mnslayer]

scoutfish
be carefull stripping new guns some manufacturers actually print the woodgrain patterns on their stocks. Real popular for highend burrelled wood stocks. they look great but are only as thick as the ink. Immersion Graphics.com also does this their site shows it somewhat.