DuraCoat Camo Kit Firearm Paint and Finish Set: Full Review

Early in 2023, I reviewed Bravo Company Manufacturing (BCM) Mk2 Recce Carbine. It is a great AR-­15, displaying all of the evolutionary improvements that have kept the design viable for more than 60 years. At the end of the review, I noted that the rifle begs for a camo paint job. Not only do camouflage finishes on guns look cool, they are functional as well,  adding camouflaging properties that include colors that significantly reduce heat on sunny days.

Things Have A Way of Working Out.

Before I even had a chance to send the gun back to BCM, the Guns & Ammo Annual editor reached out, asking if I was interested in reviewing one of the CamoKits from DuraCoat Firearm Finishes. I sent an email to Paul Buffoni, owner of Bravo Company, and obtained permission to use the Mk2 Recce as a basis for this evaluation.

Prior to this assignment, I had exactly zero experience with using DuraCoat products, even though they’ve been in the business for more than 20 years, longer than I have been gunwriting. I have little mechanical or artistic skill; believe me when I say, “If I can do it, you can too.”

Apparently, I am living proof of the axiom, “If you make something idiot proof, someone will build a better idiot.” Just about everything that could go wrong during this process did — and most of it was my fault. My suffering is your gain, which makes this a more interesting and informative article.

DuraCoat advertises CamoKits in dozens of different patterns, including every kind of military and law enforcement (LE) camouflage pattern you can think of. It also offers contemporary patterns, i.e., cheetah, pink tiger stripe, American flag, and so on, as well as dedicated hunting camo, licensed Kryptek patterns — pretty much anything and everything you can imagine. DuraCoat’s standard CamoKit includes bottles of any color needed to reproduce the camo. And don’t call it paint! The finish is a hardened coating comparable to Cerakote, except that it doesn’t require heat. You can also use Peel ‘N Spray templates, which are stickers cut to help create your own pattern.

I’ve spent time at both ends of the spectrum. One of the finest custom Cerakote houses, Blown Deadline, is 15 minutes from my house. I’ve been there several times to watch them work and asking questions. I’ve also on performed my own rattle-­can camo paint jobs on long guns. DuraCoat, with the Peel ‘N Spray kit, promised to perform somewhere in the middle: A hardened finish done using professional templates, but everything is do-­it-­yourself (DIY).

Where the Fun Begins

Allow me to start by saying that DuraCoat is a great product, exactly as advertised. The DuraCoat itself, combined with the Peel ‘N Spray templates, gives you a harder and more durable finish than spray paint with a more professional look, even if you have no artistic talent. However good the product is, though, the communication to the customer on how to use or apply the product leaves a bit to be desired, and I think this is because DuraCoat is used to dealing with professional and semi-­professional applicators who already have a base of knowledge. For example, after perusing the various camouflage patterns on the website, I decided on the Wilderness MirageFlage; I liked the color combination. It contains most of the colors of Crye’s MultiCam, but in a blocky digital pattern.

The CamoPak kit includes four 2.4-­ounce bottles of DuraCoat, and I got the Peel ‘N Spray templates as well. DuraCoat sells regular bottles of the coatings, but also spray bottles. There was no indication which I’d be getting in this kit, and it was only after opening the box and reading the instructions that I learned I’d need a paint sprayer or air brush to apply it. DuraCoat has made the mistake of assuming the average person will research the products ahead of time. They forgot that people have gotten so stupid, gun companies have to etch warnings on pistols to remind them they might be dangerous.

Provided with the kit and templates are instructions on how to mix the DuraCoat and hardener, but it offers no specific instructions on how to create the pattern seen on its website. Details such as which color to spray first or how to lay down the templates to create the pattern need to be looked up, separately. Instructions reference “male” and “female” templates, but don’t say which is which. (FYI: The female templates are the square ones with the pattern in the middle; these are meant to pop out so you can spray through the hole. The CamoKit won’t hold your hand here.)

The great thing about applying your own pattern is that you can create whatever look you want. However, some consumers want to know which template to put where, when, and in what order to replicate the pattern shown online. Information is severely lacking. It was only while I was thumbing through DuraCoat’s catalog (included with the shipment) that I accidentally discovered — on page 31 — a short how-­to section on applying the Peel ‘N Spray templates, with accompanying photos. This told me 90 percent of what I needed to know, but a printout of this should be included with the instructions, in my opinion.

First, prep: You can completely disassemble your gun. Pro shops often strip an AR-­pattern rifle to the base components, and then spray the parts separately. That’s a lot of extra work, and the difference in the final product between full disassembly and coating the gun as-­is will be hardly noticeable to most people. With an AR, as long as you close the ejection-­port door and don’t spray the finish down the muzzle, you’re probably going to be satisfied with the results.

That said, it’s a better idea to use masking tape to cover some of the controls: Selector, bolt release, charging handle, forward assist, and trigger. I covered the BCM muzzle as well. I recommend stuffing something in the magazine well, too. I used a BCM magazine, kept it there, and coated it with the gun. I removed the Gunfighter stock, sights, and everything attached to the handguard.

Next, I roughed up the surface of the gun with sandpaper to help DuraCoat adhere. Then, I sprayed down the gun with the supplied TruStrip degreaser. DuraCoat also recommends generic brake cleaner, which I’ve used before to great effect. Neither leaves a residue.

As I mentioned, I had no idea I’d need an airbrush or a High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) spray gun to complete this job until I opened the box. Luckily, my son had a complete airbrush kit, including an air compressor. When I set it up and turned it on, it actually worked! DuraCoat said that air brushes might need reducer added to the mixture to thin it out. So, in addition to the 12-­to-­one mix of color to hardener, I added reducer as well. I never used an airbrush before, but it was easy to figure out.

I sprayed an even layer of black over the entire gun, waited the recommended 3 to ­4 hours, applied some male templates, and sprayed the Woodland Green. Working with templates was a bit like looking at a photo negative: What templates you lay over black, that’s the only black you’ll have peeking through. What templates you apply over green, that’s the only green visible.

I let the green dry overnight and was happy with how the color looked the next morning. Curious, I tugged on one of the templates to see how easy it would be to remove. Unfortunately both the green and black paint peeled right off the gun! No, not on the stock, buffer tube, grip, or most of the handguard, just off of the receivers and areas of the handguard. Did I not degrease the gun well enough? Did I not rough it up properly? Did I not mix in the proper amount of hardener? Was the summer air more humid than I thought, slowing the drying process? DuraCoat is supposed to be hard enough that one needs sandpaper to even scratch it, and I could dig through what I’d put down with a fingernail. Apparently, I did something wrong. In retrospect, I don’t remember mixing the contents of the bottle after I added the hardener.

With sandpaper and a wire brush, I removed the DuraCoat that didn’t stick to the gun. Being a weapons-­grade idiot, I decided to use TruStrip cleaner and degreaser to spray off the dust. Note the “Strip” in the “TruStrip” name. It effectively softened and bubbled up the remaining DuraCoat on the BCM rifle. I then had to remove everything, which sent me back to the bare-­metal beginning.

You Can Only Make It “Idiot-­Resistant”

To make sure I didn’t make more mistakes, I contacted DuraCoat’s customer service line and anonymously talked through my issues with a helpful woman who answered. When I restarted, I was more careful and deliberate with my measurements, mixing, et cetera. FYI: You will need measuring spoons, a tablespoon and increments of teaspoons. They’ll be useless for any food when you’re done, so play dumb when your better half asks if you’ve seen them.

Pulling off those first few decals a second time, I noticed that the adhesive was very strong. It was strong enough that I was often ripping the templates trying to take them off the gun. And the decals left an adhesive residue. The company is aware of this. They’re extra sticky so they can be reused. DuraCoat sells an adhesive remover, or you can use mineral spirits, which is what I did.

After my debacle the first time around, I was a little gun-­shy. (See what I did there?) To further reduce the chances that subsequent coatings would peel, I reduced the stickiness of the templates by repeatedly sticking them to my pants/table/forehead/dogs before applying them to the BCM rifle.

The second time, I didn’t add reducer to the DuraCoat, and it still seemed to work fine through the airbrush. Those small 2.4-­oz bottles concerned me, but I had more than enough color to complete the rifle. If I hadn’t had to redo two of the colors, I probably would have had enough DuraCoat to finish two rifles.

The male stencils are mostly longer strips, but there’s no law that says you can’t cut them apart into sections if you prefer. I wasn’t as exacting as maybe I should have been in making sure the straight lines in the stencils were parallel.

From talking to professional Cerakote applicators, I have learned that the color put down first is the one you’re going to see the least when you’re done. From that, I decided my color application order was going to be black-­green-­brown-­tan, as I wanted the rifle light with dark highlights, rather than the other way around.

Remember that your selector has two positions. You’ll need to move it back and forth to spray under it if it’s not removed from the gun.

Once I had the four colors applied, I carefully peeled off the male templates. Then, it was time to use the female templates and add spots of color. This is also where I had the opportunity to fix any mistakes I made by spraying over them, pretending they never happened.

I did come away with some generic observations: Using a spray paint is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to achieve a color change — but you get what you pay for. That rattle-­can spray finish isn’t durable at all. Standard matte spray paint is soft, meaning that you can scrape it off with a fingernail. It quickly wears off under normal handling. DuraCoat, by comparison, with its hardener, is much tougher. You’d need a wire brush or sandpaper to mar the finish, which means it will last longer, too.

I’ve also noticed that matte spray paint is very pale, and camouflage colors just aren’t that vibrant. One solution that will help is to cover that spray paint with a matte clear coat. The DuraCoat colors, on the other hand, are exactly as advertised: Bold and rich. These look better on the gun than in the bottle, which is the reverse of my experience using standard spray paints advertised by the colors of the plastic caps.

My finished product has less green than the advertised pattern seen on DuraCoat’s website — but I did that deliberately. Is the end result perfect? In my case, hell no! I made a number of mistakes, large and small. Even still, the project, I think, turned out great. Better than that, I enjoyed the satisfaction of putting the camo finish on it myself! I didn’t pay anyone to do it. Every little area, including the mistakes, came from my hands. 

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