I have a friend in Kali who had his rifle done in bearcote. Has anyone had any experience, either good or bad with this company ?? How about how durable it is ??   I read that this coating is used on the Les Baer AR's, so maybe it's pretty good.
Anyone have any pics available ??
Thanks
SPECTRE

Hi SPECTRE;
I got Rocky Mt. Arms to apply their BearCoat to my Sig P220.
As you may know, it's an epoxy-based coating. It proved quite fragile (wore off high spots, points of contact, breechface)and added SIGNIFICANT thickness to the gun's surface, so much so that many markings were partially obliterated, and more importantly, THE GUN COULD NOT BE REASSEMBLED after field-stripping, it was so tight!
After sending the gun back to RMA, the problem with reassembly was improved but not resolved, this in spite of having followed RMA's instructions to fire >100 rounds through the gun before field stipping the first time after the coating was applied.
On rifles, especially the AR, this probably wouldn't be so much of a problem, but the finish is still fairly fragile.

BTW, I've also tried the "solid film lubricants", eg. Metacol III, which contrary to advertising hype, are VERY fragile, moreso than BearCoat, and scratch readily.
Finding a truly durable black firearms finish or coating is difficult. "Black chrome" is nowhere near as durable as standard industrial hard chrome, while Walter Birdsong's "Black-T" is also easily scratched. Maybe the new Boron Carbide coatings will turn out to be "the ticket". (See http://www.bodycote-na.com/ if interested) Best.

Spectre, haven't you learned you lesson with refinishing? [:p]

I had my M4gery Bearcoated by RMA last year and have been very pleased with the results. As Sawbones said it did wear off contact points, but I've had no flaking off or any other major problems.
The turnaround time was about 2 weeks door to door if my memory serves me right and the customer support answered my numerous e-mails promptly.
I tried to post my pics but they're on Photopoint and since I won't give them $20 they won't let me post them.

The metal plate in my head is almost as hard as my skull.
[img]www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/nogood.gif[/img]


BTW, I was thinking of this for a older bolt rifle I have.

Hey SPECTRE, I have ROBAR's ROGUARD finish on my SIG P229 ([url]www.robarguns.com[/url]), and it is much better than Bear Coat, IMO. I have some experience with Black T as well. Although it will scratch (not as easily as you may think), it retains it's corrosion resistance, and is well worth the money.

Just my .02

Tyler