i have a new muzzle brake on the way. its stainless and my barrel is black. anyone rattle can painted a stainless part? any advice for type of paint or part prep?

i know having it coated would be best but I am looking for a quick cheap fix to keep it from being so shiny

Yes, I have done this many times.  I hate shiny stainless.

You may need an extra coat, but it will end up looking the same as the barrels the parts that started out black.

24" barrel that started life very shiny.

Aervo has worked fine for me and touch ups are just a rattle and a spray away.

It will wear away quickly.  I have had good luck with GunKote, and similar paints should also work well

Sorry for the huge pics but the size is necessary to get the detail of the brake paint erosion.

Both rifles are full rattle can jobs. You can see that the paint doesn't last at the bare muzzle (top) and you can see the same thing happening on the braked rifle at bottom. You can see the paint coming off the face of the brake but it's lasting really well on top/bottom and sides. It's just the front that's got he paint coming off so far and as far as I can tell it's from contact with barricades and getting stuffed into my drag bag/backpack. These two guns are both chambered for the same round and have roughly the same number of rounds through them, a few hundred each, and both get used in match conditions.



Here's the same brake with a different rattle can paint job on the prior barrel after about 1200 rounds. It has the same worn face as seen above but you can also see that the paint around the top ports and side is pretty decently intact. In this configuration (.243AI, 115's at 3200fps) the rifle was a bark monster. It had a ton of blast versus my current 6XC barrels (115's at 2980fps). The brake and the rattle can paint on it stood up to 1800 rounds before I set that barrel back and recut it for 6XC.

Thanks for the he pictures and report.

I’d be really happy with that.  It’s so easy just to rattle can it again when you want to.