Dulling out your bow?

rhendrix

WKR
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Aug 6, 2012
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Anyone do this? I have a Bowtech Insanity CPX in Mossy Oak Treestand that I'm thinking about spraying the limb pockets, string stop, sight, quiver and anything else that is black or shiny. Just curious if anyone had any tips, was thinking about using grey krylon, pictures would be awesome, trying not to have to tear down my bow, but if I absolutely have to I will.
 
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Interested in following his thread. I have the same bow in black and have been considering doing something similar.
 
I'm not concerned about the warranty, I bought the bow used and don't have one anyways.
 
If I were to paint one Id break the bow down first before painting it. You could just have your local shop do that for you if you dont have a press.
 
If you can, tear it down. If not, mask the "business" parts really well. Don't get any paint on the string/ cables, cams, axles/ bearings, etc. Then just hit it with dull colored, non-reflective paint. Krylon would be fine.

It's an old-school practice; from times when camo bows weren't the norm. Just check out pictures of Randy Ulmer. He's old-school, and his bows show it. Lots of his rigs have obvious splotches of OD greens, browns, and tans. The guy could likely get any bow he wanted for nothing and even the camo bows get tagged...he must believe it gives him an edge.

The new paint may not wear to well on some surfaces, but dulling shiny parts and adding some color would be achieved. I haven't done a bow but all my stands, ladders, and other hardware get paint. I have used the Krylon Camo and the Rustoleum Camo paint seems really good too.
 
Don't disassemble or mask off anything, way too much effort. Just get a rattle can of Krylon camo, hold a couple to three feet away and hit the shiny parts with a light coat. I challenge anyone to prove a little over spray on any working parts has any effect on anything other than appearance.
 
Im doing the same thing with my carbon element. Ive been threating to do it for months but was worried about the warranty since i bought it brand new but ive decided its not that huge of a deal....
 
I guess for the amount of time it would only take, masking it would be the wise thing to do. I try to take care of my gear and don't want to compromise anything by cutting corners. If I do have a breakdown, at least then I know I did everything in my power to take care of my stuff...

If you absolutely just gotta get paint on that thing right now and can't wait, be careful, I guess.
 
It's nothing that's gotta be done right away, I think I'll just pay the local pro shop to tear it down for me since I'm not comfortable letting the preload outta the limbs with just a bowmaster press.
 
Just out of curiosity, why do you want to rattle can parts of your bow?

I've scared animals when bow hunting in scenarios such as; my scent, drawing my bow at the wrong time, a noisy tree stand (it's homemade and the seat creaked when I moved), making the wrong call when in close, etc. However, I can't recall a time where I couldn't harvest an animal because the cams on my bow were too shiny. Is this just for your own personal aesthetics, or?
 
I would say this definitely falls under the personal preference umbrella...some guys paint their face, some wear a mask, some grow a beard. I don't think I need camo boots...but there's a market for them. I know a guy who swears he's scared off elk that saw the neon yellow mouth call between his teeth. Somethings just feel right to certain people.

Don't take this the wrong way...I am mostly trying to justify some of the quirky thing I do:)
 
Don't disassemble or mask off anything, way too much effort. Just get a rattle can of Krylon camo, hold a couple to three feet away and hit the shiny parts with a light coat. I challenge anyone to prove a little over spray on any working parts has any effect on anything other than appearance.

Well I wouldn't want paint on my strings. Also that would look like sh*t doing it that way haha. If you ever want to sell the bow in the future you'd have a hard time finding someone to buy it with a sloppy rattle can job on it.
 
Well I wouldn't want paint on my strings. Also that would look like sh*t doing it that way haha. If you ever want to sell the bow in the future you'd have a hard time finding someone to buy it with a sloppy rattle can job on it.

After 4 - 5 years my bows look like crap anyway, I buy them to use not resell. Plus I think compounds are fairly ugly to begin with and they're a tool not something I look at and admire. Now if we're talking about a good looking longbow or recurve that's a different story. I've rattle canned 4 bows and only disassembled one. The other three got a little paint on the strings with no apparent effect and I never gave it a second thought until now. Again I don't put much paint on the shiny parts, it's more like overspray and it's enough to take the glare off. It's such a light coat that it dries quickly. That said I suppose the petroleum in paint could cause damage so when I do my CS34 I'll probably do it when I put on a new set of threads about a month prior to the season; remove the old threads, spray the shiny parts, put on the new threads....
 
I painted my matrix. Got tired of the blah paint that chips.
Spray Painted it ASAT. I broke it down and painted the riser. Left the limbs black.
 

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I painted my matrix. Got tired of the blah paint that chips.
Spray Painted it ASAT. I broke it down and painted the riser. Left the limbs black.

Thats slick! Looks like you did a really great job on it. What type of paint did you use?
 
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