There's a new company that sells "wraps" for firearms. They stick on, and you heat them with a heat gun to conform to curves and smaller areas. They claim to be waterproof, but there is no claim to any sort of heat resistance despite pictures showing barrels, suppressors, etc wrapped in the stuff. Has anyone tried it? I'm wondering about the durability and heat resistance.

Here's the website: Gunskins

Here's a photo of their product:

Looks like a good deal for all the guys who have the rubber over-molded stocks & want to change the color. Good find

Interesting

This is very, very cool. Being removable is also a plus, (just in case).

For the price I might give it a try.

I ended up ordering a set of ATACS-AU "wraps" for an AR-15. I'll put it on my cheap-o S&W M&P-15 Sport to see how it does. I'm really hoping it does not do some weird stuff to my barrel when the rifle gets heated by throwing some lead downrange.

Gunskins did send me an email with a shipping/tracking number first thing this morning, so that's good. If I get it by Saturday, I'll report back with how well it did since I have a range trip planned for Sunday.

Waiting for report.

Tag to see how this turns out.

I "liked" GunSkins on Facebook and posted a question about the concern of a hot barrel that was wrapped in their product. They replied about two minutes later the following:

"We have done extensive testing and have had no issues with heat. We don't recommend running the skins on the barrel of full auto weapons. Other then that you are good to go."

We'll see how it really does after I get it installed and test it out.

That is a cool idea, but I will eat my shoe if it doesn't melt off the barrel, especially the silencer.  These are made out of vinyl, according to their website.  Vinyl starts to distort around 160 degrees F, or up to 200, depending on the type.  Not to mention, the adhesive.

I guess we will see.  Good luck.

Interesting

Old school tag for further info and updates

I received the Gunskins today for my AR. I've done about half of my rifle already but have to go to a friend's birthday party so the rest will have to wait until tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon I'm headed to the range to see how it holds up to heat.

Well the shipping was fast.

Yeah, shipping only took two days. I'm skeptical that the wrapped barrel will stand up to the heat, but we'll see....

Tag

Finished pics man! How was the application process?

That's the one thing that concerns me.  They say it can be easily removed with a blow dryer, but it won't peel off of a hot barrel.

Here's my update after 'installing' the GunSkins on my M&P-15 Sport and taking it to the range today. I chose the M&P 15 Sport as my 'test bed' because I was planning on painting it with Aluma-Hyde 2 this fall, so if the GunSkins mess up the finish on the rifle then I don't really care - it will be painted anyway.

Here's the "before" picture of my rifle:



I received the ATACS-AU GunSkins for AR-15's two days after placing my order. The adhesive decals came in a plastic bag with no instructions. Here is the GunSkins product after removing it from the bag:



It came with pre-cut decals for each side of the upper and lower receivers as well as pistol grip, FWD assist (which my M&P Sport does not have), ejection port cover (ditto), decals for each side of a 30-rd magazine, and a large strip of uncut decal that you can cut into customized pieces for things like the butt stock, etc. Also included is a strip pre-cut for installation on the top of a long Picatinny rail. I did not use this one, nor did I use the pistol grip decals.







Since the GunSkins came without installation instructions, I found some installation videos on their website. The basics are to degrease the rifle, and to apply heat if necessary. I tried to degrease my rifle with  generous amounts of rubbing alcohol. That didn't work at all. Then I disassembled the accessories from the upper and the lower and sprayed them with generous amounts of brake cleaner. This unfortunately took some of the finish off the rifle, at least the sheen and some paint off the Bushnell TRS-25 red dot. Despite that, the brake cleaner did the trick and allowed the GunSkins decals to adhere to the rifle. The pre-cut decals were at times difficult to install, at least where there were long skinny strips. It was hard to keep them straight and install without minor flaws. From a couple feet away the flaws aren't really noticeable.

Here's some pictures of my rifle with the upper, lower, and barrel decals installed.







I used the large portion of uncut 'excess' material to put on my Magpul ACS-L stock and Magpul MOE fore grip. Here is the finished product that I took to the range today:



Today I went to a public shooting range to do some sighting in of some other rifles. While there I shot 140 rds through this rifle in less than 8 minutes to see how the decals do with the barrel heat. Here's a picture before I started shooting:



After 50 rds I stopped to see how the barrel decals were doing. The barrel was hot to the touch, but the decal was still intact. It did not melt or come unraveled.



I stopped again at 100 rds. The barrel was very hot now, but the decal was still staying adhered. The decal was a big "squishy" now, similar to what it was like while installing it with a heat gun. The interesting tidbit here is that this allowed me to get out some of the little bubbles and imperfections from my initial installation.



After the 140 rds I checked again, and there was no change. Basically, the decal was not going to melt or fall off.



My confidence in this product is much higher than it was a day or two ago. However, I still remain skeptical that the decal will not rub or scrape off when it his very hot and rubbed against something like a magazine pouch. I do occasionally "run and gun" with a group of my friends in nearby BLM land in the mountains. We wear full gear (Plate carriers, ballistic armor, battle belts, etc,) all loaded down. I want to see if after shooting this gun a while and then having it rest/rub against my plate carrier if the decals will wear off. I suspect it will, but I'm not certain. My buddies and I have a 'run and gun' scheduled for next weekend, so I will update this thread with what I find out from that experience.

Anyone tried the USNVC Kryptek wraps?

A bit of an update:

Tonight I decided to apply more of the GunSkins decals to areas of the rifle I missed before. This included more camo decals on the red dot and its knobs, the delta ring, around the trigger guard, and more places on the ACS-L stock. I found it interesting while applying these decals that there appeared to be no ill effects from the decals on the barrel after shooting it yesterday.

As a reminder, here was the rifle before applying the camo decals:



Here it is tonight after the additional decals were added:



and the other side:



One small let-down is that the color of the decals is not correct. The decals are much lighter than the actual ATACS-AU pattern. You can see the difference when you compare the rifle against my genuine ATACS-AU plate carrier (note: the pistol mag pouch and the rifle sling are ATACS-FG pattern, but the plate carrier itself and the AK-47 mag pouches are ATACS-AU). The picture of the rifle appears to be slightly lighter than it is in real life, perhaps this is due to the flash:

Nice.

 




 

Checked out the site, and I might get one for my hunting rifle, an 10/22.

Here's another photo comparing the GunSkins decal colors to the 'real' ATACS AU colors (using a Propper ATACS-AU shirt). As you can see, the Gunskins is definitely lighter.

Its more of a different color than lighter to my eyes.

 

That would bug the hell out of me.

Yep, looks like a red/pink tint to me.

I sent Gunskins a private message on their Facebook account, which included the color comparison photos and some questions as to whether all of their ATACS-AU decals were off-color like this, or if I received a bad set. Below is their response. To be fair, I have not tried the comparisons outdoors, as suggested by them. I will be going into BLM land in the mountains near my house this weekend for some "run and gun" range time with friends, so I will get some photos of the rifle and my other ATACS gear in a natural environment.

GunSkins' reply: "Hello Troy, all of our  A-tacs patterns are approved by A-Tacs for color and clarity, and toned to match fabric materials given to us be the manufacturer. There are shade variations in the print due to the color variations of the substrate printed on. The cloth and fabric materials tend to be a gray-brown and the graphic material we use is a pure white.  We also notice a greater variation in the color indoors rather than out. The patterns match better in natural light and at typical concealment distances. The same variations can be seen due to the porosity of fabrics, such as the proper ripstop material as opposed to the microfiber tactical clothing.  Similar variations can be seen with hydrographics as the film is semi transparent and the weapon typically black.  Please feel free to give me a call with further questions or respond to this comment. 855-770-7800
Thank you


Kevin Lyon "

part of what he says is true.

I was dying some PMags once upon a time and I had one black one that I had attempted to....unblack. Well... inside, it looked like regular ol black.

It was laying on a table near a window on my bench one day and I looked and was like, where'd the fucking blue pmag come from?!

Turns out, artificial lighting can be odd.

I hope the Krpytek offering from RapidWraps looks close to image.

This. It's not just my eyes. There seems to be very little of the greens in the decal.

Here's an update - some friends and I ran some carbine courses we set up in nearby BLM land in the mountains. We use AR500 steel targets and get completely geared up for these outings. I took the rifle with the GunSkins with me as one of the rifles I used. I was wearing all ATACS-AU gear, as it blends in the best in this environment. I took GunSkins' advice and saved my judgment until I compared the GunSkins with my ATACS AU clothing outside. I was very surprised that the GunSkins was VERY close to my ATACS clothing in natural sunlight. I was floored. It's as if it changes colors outside. Here's a photo:



A friend took a great video of me using this rifle. In it, the GunSkins is even closer to the ATACS clothing than it appears in the above photo.

Also, I again tested the Gunskins of things like the barrel and how they do when heated and rubbed against other items. As you can see in the above photo, I wear a plate carrier with Level 3 Dyneema plates, full mag pouches, etc. When slung, the rifle rubs against these items. Even after getting the barrel very hot from 60+ rounds of firing, there were no issues when it was slung and rubbing against these items when I transitioned to my pistol.

In summary, I was very skeptical of the GunSkins when I first installed them, but it turns out that the color match is very close in natural sunlight, and there have been no issues with heat. I'm very pleased and will be purchasing more of their pre-cut kits for other rifles.

Here's some pictures from the 930SPX I did in Kryptek Highlander.

So install is pretty much like putting on a sticker, tehn running some heat over it to "cure" it?

ETA: watched the vid, answers all my questions, especially the sticks to itself part.

Close - you'll want to apply the heat as you adhere the 'sticker' - the heat will help the material to stretch and conform to shapes and corners, as well as helping it adhere and 'cure'

One last question, not covered by the vid.

How does the adhesion to itself look?  For example, duct tape sticks to stuff, except you can peel it easily off itself.  Does the vinyl seem like it will come off/loose/peel easily where it's been stuck to itself?  Have you "picked" at the seam yet?

It sticks to itself a bit better than to the rifle. I found it best to overlap the decals for optimal adhesion. You *can* pick the decals off at the seams, but it certainly adheres best to itself.

Another good site I found. Mossy Oak skins.
Seems to be a very similar if not identical product.

For an AR just buy the uncut skin. $20, nothing to lose. I'll be the Guinea Pig.

http://www.mossyoakgraphics.com/gun-kits.html

Let us know how it goes with those Mossy Oak skins.

In the end, I'm happy with the GunSkins. I have another kit on the way, so I will post pictures of the end result.

Thanks to your posts I'll be experimenting myself.

Link to wear I can find this decal?

 

Here's where you can get a Kryptek Highlander kit: Kryptek      
Choose Highlander in the drop-down menu. This kit is from Rapid Wraps - I've used their product on my mags and the print and colors have been spot-on (even indoors!)

Excellent.

 

I'm thinking my supernova will be simplest.

Can't decide on a color.

I'm thinking atacs LE or maybe a tan. Desert storm is pretty cool too.

I did another one of my AR-15s in ATACS-FG last night. I'll post pics and a short write-up once I can get outside to take some pictures.

Excellent write up and review. Thanks for taking the time.

Disclaimer - After my initial experience with Gunskins, I contacted them via their Facebook page with questions, comments, and some ideas for minor improvement. I also sent them some photos of the rifle I wrapped in ATACS AU. They liked it and were appreciative. They offered to send me an AR-15 wrap kit in ATACS FG for free to see if it would work with a Troy VTAC Alpha rail (I have 3 rifles with these rails). I received the kit from them on Saturday and the put it on one of my rifles last night. Here are the photos.

The rifle I'm using here is a Delton lower with BCM complete upper (16" 1/8" SS410 barrel, 15" VTAC Alpha Rail) with an Aimpoint T-1 Micro with FDE IO Cover on an American Defense QD mount. I also swap that T-1 Micro off for a Vortex Viper PST 1-4 on an American Defense QD mount. Pictures of both on the rifle are below.

Here's the 'before' photo, with genuine ATACS FG clothing as a background (Propper TAC-U shirt):




Here is a closeup of the rifle with the FG skins installed:




And the rifle with Aimpoint T-1 on the same background as the 'before' photo:




And with the Vortex 1-4 on the rifle:




I'm still pleased with the GunSkins product. After running it last weekend, it did indeed remain durable. The ATACS FG colors match nearly perfectly both indoors and outdoors to the genuine material. It also adheres to the lengthwise grooves on the VTAC Alpha Rail much better than I expected it would.

Tagged. This is pretty cool...

The first rifle you did still looks pink outside, atleast to me.

Did you have to trim around the slots in the wiking tactics free float tube?

The FG looks a lot better.

 

To the human eye - outside - the ATACS AU looks like it is nearly a perfect match to the AU clothing. I don't know why a pink tint is picked up in photos.

Yes, I did have to trim out all the slots on the Viking Tactics handguard. It took a while. Be sure to have several spare sharp blades for the trimming tasks.

I agree. However, I'm in a high-desert environment and for 10 or 11 months out of the year, the ATACS AU is a better camo to my natural surroundings.

Whats the chance of moisture getting trapped under the material, causing corrosion?