Stainless In The Woods

[Rooster59]

Going to deer hunt with my Puma 92 trapper this year in the deeper, more thickly wooded draws. My current deer gun is a 30-30 Marlin Texan but I wanted to "get some blood" on the 92 to christen it properly.

The issue is it is stainless and my range buddy asked if I had polished it since I got it while we were testing my deer load. Only in passing have I thought about how shiny it is and how I might stand out to a deer in the dark woods. The only solution, besides aborting my plan, is to slap some camo vinyl on the barrel, mag tube, and receiver sides.

Anyone else ever have to address this issue?

[pricedo]

There's a reason you don't see many stainless military firearms.............they stand out like a sore thumb and draw attention & in a military tactical situation that attention usually means enemy fire.
Stainless is fine for bush defense guns where you want to discourage animal encounters but for hunting where you're trying not to be "busted" they are counterpurpose to the task at hand.
The Whitetail deers senses that pick up on unusual sights, sounds and smells are many times more acute than those of enemy soldiers.
Whitetail deer are called whitetails because their main danger signalling device is the bright underside of their white tails.
What kind of signal do you think sunlight reflected off a stainless receiver/barrel sends to an wise old Whitetail buck that has every intention of getting even wiser and older
I usually hunt with blued guns with wooden stocks that blend into the shadows inside my ground blinds & covered tree stands.
I keep my sensory profiles low (sight, scent, sound)........make no noise other than deer grunts or bleats, hide my profile in blinds and covered tree stands and use scent destroying sprays and soaps. It makes me laugh when other hunters go through great pains to de-scent their bodies & clothes and walk into the bush with a stainless gun on a sunny day that hasn't been carefully wiped down and even I with my 60+ year old snozzel can smell the grease, gun lube oil and Hoppes #9 emanating from it........"gee I didn't see anything today, there ain't the deer they used to be in these here parts".
I don't tell em cause I like having "expert" hunters like that in the bush who unwittingly wind up working for me as "deer pushers" that day.

[Model 52]

I had a friend who was a genuinely nice individual who managed a large gun shop I frequented. Sadly he passed as far too young an age.

But I recall a conversation he was having with his father about a truly gorgeous walnut and blued steel pre-64 Model 70 he'd just acquired as a personal rifle. He was incredibly proud of it, and his father an un-repentent deer hunter looked at it, ran his thumb along the mirror polished shiny blued barrel and dead panned:

"It'll scare deer...better rub some dirt on it".

He wasn't wrong as it's not just shiny stainless steel surfaces that reflect light but rather polished blued surfaces as well. The large flats on a nicely polished blued receiver of a lever gun can flash like a mirror, and that's something to be aware of in the field. Same with the shiny and mostly flat surface of a glossy butt stock.

On the other hand, not all stainless steel is shiny either...

[akuser47]

use the camo wraps no sticky glues to have to clean up later. Our use a cheap camo bandana and para cord and lash her till she is the color you need. Simple and easy

[pricedo]

I've seen camo-tape in sporting goods stores that purportedly doesn't leave any traces of adhesive on the gun and is apparently inert chemically.

Never tried it but I definitely might after I read some credible field reports........always cheaper to learn from the mistakes of others.

My freezer is never empty so I must be doing something right.

[Rooster59]

The camo vinyl I have used in a previous career, made by 3M, is: designed to take all the adhesive with the vinyl upon removal. It does that very well. It just takes some time to install it.

This rifle wasn't chosen for deer hunting. It is a do-all, go-to gun that I would like to take a deer with once then back to my traditional deer guns.

For the record pricedo, my deer hunting has been more successful since I quit trying so hard. Last year I had just finished my third cigarette when a big eight pointer came at me in a trot at fifty yards, from down wind. Or maybe it was my cover scent of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy. Point well taken buddy. Just funnin' ya.

[Ranch Dog]

A lot of fellows use horse or medical wrap here. You can find it on ebay pretty cheap and you can find it in various camo patterns. It is a fabric that sticks to itself, not the object being wrapped.

[Rooster59]

There is no shortage of horse lovers in my neck of the woods. I'll have to check with one of my neighbors about the colored versions. Might be quicker than the camo vinyl.

[pricedo]

The camo vinyl I have used in a previous career, made by 3M, is: designed to take all the adhesive with the vinyl upon removal. It does that very well. It just takes some time to install it.

This rifle wasn't chosen for deer hunting. It is a do-all, go-to gun that I would like to take a deer with once then back to my traditional deer guns.

For the record pricedo, my deer hunting has been more successful since I quit trying so hard. Last year I had just finished my third cigarette when a big eight pointer came at me in a trot at fifty yards, from down wind. Or maybe it was my cover scent of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy. Point well taken buddy. Just funnin' ya.

If I'm in commercial hunt camp I always leave a complimentary bottle of "Old Spice" after shave lotion in the washroom in hopes that there will be some newbies who will make use of it. A big trophy buck reeling from a "green" hunter might make my lucky day.

Down wind of the newbies with boot sizes bigger than their I.Q.s is a good place to be on opening morning.

Truth is often stranger than fiction.
Believe it or not Ripley I've even seen em dumb enuf to be listening to a sports game on a transistor radio in a tree stand and the guy afterwards telling me that he was keeping the volume low when I could hear the play by play 200 yards from his stand.

[ironhead7544]

The first time I was on a stand during a drive I noticed the sun flashes off the guns of guys with the high polish bluing. If I could see that from a long way off. so can a deer. It was matte finish for me after that.

There are a number of coatings out there that can be used. Check with your gunsmith.