My X-Bolt 2 Hunter Composite in 300 WSM before I painted the stock.
My rifle after my DIY Camouflage painting of the rifle stock.
I have been playing with the idea of painting my X-Bolt 2 Composite Hunter for a while. After testing out the concept on some of my heavily sun bleached trail cameras I decided to give it a try on my X-Bolt 2.
The biggest question I had about getting this to work was priming the plastic stock. There are a few plastic primers out there but in the end I chose an Adhesion Promoter.
DIY Camo paint supplies
What was the process in painting my rifle stock?
- First, I took the stock off and removed the recoil pad, LOP module, grip module, comb, and swivel stud from the butt stock.
- I masked off the areas I didn't want painted.
- I used fine-grit sandpaper to lightly rough up the areas I wanted to paint.
- I wiped down the stock with rubbing alcohol and let dry
- I applied a light tack coating and a minute later, a good solid coat of Adhesion Promoter and let sit for 20 minutes Per Adhesion Promoter instructions
- Then, with Flat Deep Forest Green, I did a tack coat, waited a minute or two, then a full coat of this base color
- A couple of hours later, I applied a second coat of Flat Deep Forest Green
- The next day, I sprayed Flat Army Green into a plastic tray until I had a small pool of paint and I then used a small sponge to dip into the paint and then dab random splotches on top of the base coat
- A few hours later, I used Flat Earth Brown to make additional random color splotches
- After a day of drying, I then applied three coats of Matte Clear with an hour to dry in between each coat and after a day of drying, I applied one more coat of Matte Clear
The hardest part of painting this was using the Matte Clear. It is difficult to see how well you have applied a coat and I got a few overspraying drip marks... marks that no one but myself would ever notice but it still bugs me.
I just completed this and will have to follow up on this article on how well the new paint job on my rifle holds up. For now, I am really happy with how it turned out. It feels like the paint should hold up well. We shall see.
Paint tray with sponge
My rifle after my DIY Camouflage painting of the rifle stock.
DIY Camouflaged rifle butt stock piece