Are you all going to laugh at me?

[brianakell]

Bought an older savage bolt gun. Possibly the ugliest stain/finish Ive ever seen, looked like plastic, and THAT shade of brown, no grain coming through etc. Its stripped, and pondering colors, really leaning towards a red, like the russian red ak finishes out there. Am I making a big mistake, and would be better with a yellow, or light brown? Just racks and racks of brown rifles at shows (well shows a year or 2 ago) and its just so boring, little spice to that color seems like it would be fun? But maybe a red american rifle is just bad idea?

[rondog]

Is it wood? If so, I'd strip it and refinish it to make it look like wood. Paint it red, and yeah, I'll laugh at ya!

[ChadAmberg]

I did see one wood stock years ago that was finished in a really deep dark rich purple color. Not ghey purple, but really nice looking. You can do some interesting colors in stripped wood, so experiment a little bit.

[Mazin]

They have all sorts of stains out there, make it your's man! I say strip it and see if you can get out all of the old stain and then see, if the wood looks good then just give it a clear or tounge finish but thats me.

We will all laugh no matter what, we're all dicks like that

[brianakell]

Is it wood? If so, I'd strip it and refinish it to make it look like wood. Paint it red, and yeah, I'll laugh at ya!

No, no paint! It nearly looked like paint before. Stripped, it, and going to stain etc. Its a cheap stock I think, birch is the latest guess, possibly cherry, but I doubt that.

something like these:
http://www.ar-15.co/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1012095
http://beta.ar15.com/archive/topic.h...&f=64&t=129013
http://customgunfinishes.com/index.php/tag/russian-red/

I dont think Id get it as bright, but you get the idea. Just cant seems to find any pics of that color on a bolt gun, sort of on this mosin:
http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.as...=F3MOSIN9130PU
but that has much more yellow in it than I was thinking.

So far sounds like it wouldnt totally disgust other people, so I think its good to go to red! Im ok being THAT guy with a red rifle, just dont want to be the guy with the gross rifle!

[rondog]

No, no paint! It nearly looked like paint before. Stripped, it, and going to stain etc. Its a cheap stock I think, birch is the latest guess, possibly cherry, but I doubt that.

something like these:
http://www.ar-15.co/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1012095
http://beta.ar15.com/archive/topic.h...&f=64&t=129013
http://customgunfinishes.com/index.php/tag/russian-red/

I dont think Id get it as bright, but you get the idea. Just cant seems to find any pics of that color on a bolt gun, sort of on this mosin:
http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.as...=F3MOSIN9130PU
but that has much more yellow in it than I was thinking.

So far sounds like it wouldnt totally disgust other people, so I think its good to go to red! Im ok being THAT guy with a red rifle, just dont want to be the guy with the gross rifle!

Well, you know, there's Fire Engine Red or International Harvester Red, and there's funky old M1 Garand red from years of linseed oil applications. And many nice "reddish" stains available. There's a ton of info out there on all the different gun forums, especially the CMP forum, about refinishing stocks and different stains, etc. Some woods are tough to stain, and some stains will soak in better. A lot of guys make their own stains with alcohol-based leather dyes. There's only a thousand ways to refinish a stock, all of them right and all of them wrong, just depends on who you ask.

As long as it looks like a wooden rifle stock and not a bright red painted mailbox post, we won't go too hard on ya.

<edit> Here's a thread on the CMP forum about something called Chestnut Ridge Military stain, that has a slight reddish tinge to it, alcohol based. http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=101983

[two shoes]

They have all sorts of stains out there, make it your's man! I say strip it and see if you can get out all of the old stain and then see, if the wood looks good then just give it a clear or tounge finish but thats me.

We will all laugh no matter what, we're all dicks like that

+1,000

[merl]

get 3-4 different colors of fluorescent marking paint and do a very bright camo job

[brianakell]

get 3-4 different colors of fluorescent marking paint and do a very bright camo job

Perfect, it would be so much easier to find it when it wanders away from camp this way!

Ill try to get some pics posted once I get it refinished, no way it can look worse than it was!

[Irving]

Who cares? Go crazy. Give it a camo job that looks like dirty clothes. That way you can stand it up in the back of the closet and your wife won't even notice.