Painting your rifle- or at least how I painted mine

I've been wanting to paint a few of my guns for a while now, but just haven't had the guts. Well, a few months back I picked up an old beat-up Howa 30-06 that was just begging for a paint job. The rifle was mechanically sound, it just had a lot of cosmetic damage. I figured I couldn't make it look any worse, so...

1) Clean it very well with Windex and a rag.  I also used an old tooth brush with windex for the tight spots.

2) Tape off everything you don't want paint on. Trigger, scope lenses, etc. I removed the bolt and painted the handle too.  I stuffed paper towels in the lens area and then taped it up.  I did the same with the area where the bolt goes.

3) Get a coat hanger and hang it from the strap point.

4) Pick out some paint.  I got mine at Wally Word.

5) PAINT IT! I put down two light coats of the middle color waiting about 10min between coats.

6)  Wait about 20 min and then bust out an old cup and a sponge brush that you've torn up.  Spray the paint into the cup and get a SMALL amount on the sponge.

7) Start small and then adjust as you learn how your brush works.  I did some streaks, some dabs, and drags.  I used the lightest color first, and then followed up with the darkest color.  I don't know why, it's just how I did it.

8) I could have stopped here.  It looked pretty good, but I already had another can of paint, so...

9) Wait at least 24 hrs for it to dry.  This is the hard part.  After it dries, take off the tape and ba-zinga, you've got a custom paint job on your gun.  Mine is currently drying in my garage... I'll upload pics when I take the tape off.  Also, I recommend using a new brush and cup for the third color- I had some color mixing, which actually created a fourth color- it all worked out though and I'm excited to start painting my other rifles.

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