I just did my one bow last week - and a rifle stock about two weeks before that - and will probably do my other bow after I get the one I just painted tuned back up again since I also replaced the string and cables. I bought both used and was never crazy about the realtree snow pattern that they had.
I completely stripped the bow down and painted everything separately as I wanted to do the limbs, limb pockets and riser slightly different colors. I also masked off the contact areas on the limbs and limb pockets as I only scuffed up the original paint and painted over it so I wouldn't have to competely sand everything down, deal with priming the aluminum riser, etc.. I should have also masked off the small portion where the limb pockets contact the riser, but forgot to and had to sand them back down again after the fact to get the limb pockets to seat properly. I gave everything a good wipe down with 91% ispopropyl before painting.
I didn't want to do anything crazy, just make it so it doesn't stand out as much as I felt it did with the old pattern. I'm happy with how it turned out (sorry about the crappy pic).
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