sproulman - I won't say one way or another about shiny things spooking game. But I too the finish off one of my T/C Hawkens down to the bare wood. I then refinished it with clear satin finish polyurethane. For the brass, I got some Birchwood Casey's Brass Black and treated the brass (you have to remove any oxidation off it first with very fine emery cloth and steel wool). The tint you get varies with the number of applications of the brass black. I did mine until it has a soft grey appearance and it looks really nice.