If You Go Tactical Black You Won’t Go Back!
Glint, glint. Around noon during dear season, when hunters are coming down from their stands the hills look like a dozen WW2 commandos are holding a conversation via signal mirrors. All those rifles with polyurethane stocks and blued metal catch the sun to signal a hunters presence.
Wearing corrective lenses, I was always conscious of reflections and wrapped my gun with green and black cloth tape. Only after one rainy deer season I took the tape off of my then pride and joy (Browning BLR) to find a mottled pattern of rust forming on the blued metal.
What I wanted was a phosphate type finish like on my M1 Garand – durable and resistant to rust. Problem was, the cost to have parts refinished was prohibitive. I settled on a high temperature flat black paint typically used to paint cast iron radiators and barbecue grills. The draw back was that it scratched fairly easily and had to be touched up every so often.
Then various gun companies came up with the “Matte” or “Tactical Black” baked on paint finishes. These are, to my mind, exactly what the doctor ordered: These fishes are:
The only drawback is that these finishes have to be sand blasted or sanded off if you want to go back to a blued finish. The flat black paint I used to use could be removed with paint stripper.