Camouflaging My Rifle

I’ve always wanted to Camouflage my rifle via rattle can but never had the courage to do it. I wasn’t confident in my skills and was deathly afraid of ruining my $2100 LWRC M6A2. I thought about having it Cerakoted but I don’t have $200+ to throw into aesthetics alone. Yes, I know Cerakoting has a purpose in protecting the rifle and does it well, I just can’t afford it!
Last week I decided to just do it and I have to say that it was relatively easy to do and I’m very satisfied with the end product and the fact that I did it myself. Here’s how I did it:
Materials:

Multiple Cans of Rustoleum Camouflage paint. Tan, Brown and Dark Brown
(I had to use one Krylon can for Green)
Masking Tape
Camo Netting
A well ventilated area to use. It was my backyard and I used an old kennel to put it on top of.
That’s all you will need!

I broke down the entire process in 5 phases. Hint* take your time and have fun!

Phase One: Prepping

This is the absolute most important of all the phases. Wipe down the entire rifle with a lint free towel to take off any oil from your fingers and anything that will get in the way of a good contact with the surface and the paint.
Remove all your furniture, stock, pistol grip, anything you don’t want painted. (my furniture was already Camouflaged by a friend) if you want to paint those items, spray them separately.
I left my Trijicon Reflex on my rifle.
Use masking tape to tape off the very few places that shouldn’t be painted. For me, it was the objective lens, fiber optics on the Reflex sight; the critical parts of my BUIS, the piston system under the 12 o’clock rail, the bottom of the receiver where the pistol grip meets. I also left an empty 10 round pmag in the rifle. That’s it! Now you’re ready for-
Phase Two: Base Coat.

You always want to go with the lightest color to dark. I used the Tan Rustoleum Camouflage can for this. This phase is almost as important as the first. I set my rifle standing level on my dog’s old cage kennel and started spraying. The key to all of the spray painting is figuring out the distance and speed of your spray. For me it was two to three feet. Now spray in one direction and do long, steady and fast strokes to keep the paint from running.

For best results, do multiple light layers while letting it dry during each run. This is the longest phase because you have to get every part of the rifle. Be very thorough and make sure you get all of the angles. Once one side is dry, rotate it and get the next side until you get it all. You might be doing this for a long time! I spent over an hour on this phase, with the dry times included. I allowed the base coat to dry overnight before I moved onto the next.
Phase Three: Pattern.

Here’s where you utilize your artistic license. I used some camo netting for my pattern. The tricky part is getting the netting to stay close to the surface so I could get more definition from the net. I started with green and for all of the different color paints, I did a random pattern of stripes. For the color paints, do quick, short sprays at alternating distances to get a different random layers and saturation. Once one color was dry, I moved to the next, Brown. Do this multiple times until you’re happy with the pattern. Carefully take off the netting to check the status and to let dry. Same as the previous phase, rotate until you get all of the angles. At the very end, I used the dark brown to hit a few spots.
Phase Four: Air Dry.

I let it sit for half an hour before I moved it to a better place for it to dry. I let it dry for a few hours after that. The last thing you want is your fingers smearing the paint!
Phase Five: Putting it all back together.