Custom camo rifle painting question..
 

Do you need to apply a white primer? I read up a great how-to site on how this guy custom painted his AR, but he didn't use a primer. Just a tan base coat. then again i'm practicing by first painting my old savage 521 model 22LR (wooden stock). only painted the stock, but trying to think if on wood if I should prime it first or just go straight to the base coat color. stupid question probably, but i'm a newbie to this lol

Through trial and error, I ended up stripping and sanding my wood stock to get the paint to work right. My first attempt I primed over the lightly sanded finish and then painted, only to have it chip and flake off. My second attempt after cleaning all the finish off, I just used the tan as a base coat and followed with the OD green and flat black. Worked great.

i had the same results with the white primer. what kind of paint did you use? i'm using krylons camo paints.

Krylon camo paint for those who are wondering.

thanks again rs. just practiced not too long ago on my old 522 savage. i wanna practice again on something else before i try the 870 next. any ideas on a clear coat that wont reflect the sun too bad?

I would think a matte clear laquer would do the trick, I never did clear coat my gun. If I am correct Krylon paint advertises a tough chip proof finish after about a week of cure time. My stock is still fine, a few small chips on the barrel, but after a year of field use still good. By the way, the rifle is a Marlin 917. I'll try to post a pic if I remember.