Bubba Paints His Turkey Gun Again

Back in 2009, I spray-painted my Mossberg 500 with Krylon Fusion and documented it for Turkey & Turkey Hunting. The story was well-received, and folks not only liked the paint job, but liked the way I described it. If you’re interested, here’s the original story:

Bubba Paints His Turkey Gun

I can report that the paint job has held up. It has had a couple scrapes and scabs and such, but I have just touched up the larger patches, and let the here-and-there nicks be part of the charm of the gun. I can also confirm that after over a decade, spray painting the gun was a resounding success. I probably would not do it to a $800 Benelli, but this was a scratch-n-dent bin Mossberg 500 I bought in 1996. The paint I used was the Krylong Fusion in matte camolflage shades.

As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to swap out the scope for a Bushnell Banner 1.5-4.5X32. After sighting in the gun, I decided that this was going to be a permanent thing. I, therefore, decided to paint the scope to match the gun.

The first step was to mask off the gun. I removed the barrel, to shorten the thing considerably. I then put a plastic bag over the rest, leaving the scope exposed. I then went about using masking tape to mask off both ends of the scope and limit the spray to just the scope mount, rings and the scope itself.

Much to my surprise, the original Krylon Fusion paint was viable. I shook it well and picked up where I left off.. I’d say that’s pretty good for 11 years on the shelf, eh? Krylon Fusion dries fairly quickly. A quick hit with a heat gun makes it dry enough so that I can layer on another color. I first coated it with a dun color and then used olive, brown, black, and so on to add what looks like multiple layers. I used sprigs of Hemlock and Yew from the front of the house as stencils. The trick is to be subtle and built up the layers. I finished it off with Krylon Clear Matte Finish. That adds a bit of durability to job, and then let it sit for a day. The work blended right in with what was there already.

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