.50 Beowulf

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I'm sure some of you all have seen this gun before from the NRA Magazine article. Here are some better pictures I took with my cell phone while working on this project. In retrospect I wish I would have gotten more pictures with a better camera...let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

This work was done on a 35W Epilog 36EXT. Most of the work was etched twice..I think the speed was 10-15 at 100% power at 600 DPI. I used pretty much whatever I could find to make the parts level on the bed - ceramic blocks, post it notes, felt etc. I've been meaning to ask Epilog when they are going to come out with a 50 cal Beowulf jig .

BTW, it's been stuffed into an AR-15 receiver.

Thanks for looking.

[Bill Cunningham]

One of the guys at our club has a MacTac.50 The last time he bought metal ammo box of.50bmg for it, they cost him 7 bucks a round.. .50's are certainly not a poor mans gun..ha 'And' if the guy next to you is shooting with a compensator, it can do you some real damage..

[greg lindsey]

Nice job, did you use cermark? I read where you said you ran it twice, if you used cermark, did you just make two passes or did you re-spray over the first engraving.

[kyle bonnell]

It looks they used Dura Coat or something similar on the rifle to make it white. Did you burn off the coating and we see the dark finish underneath or is it Thermark? Im a gun nut so I gotta ask how you did that.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Kyle you are correct. It was painted with Dura Coat and I etched through it to expose the metal underneath. It gave a better contrast the I would have expected.

I am not a huge fan of Cermark - it has yielded inconsistent results.

[kyle bonnell]

Excellent!!! I love it. I have a few guns I sprayed with Dura Coat and now I have to laser them.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Post what you etch. I'd be interested in seeing.

[kyle bonnell]

Here is the bolt I did on my Ruger 10/22. Its kinda a bad shot, the photo not the rifle.



I've sprayed my Remington 700, Remington 1100, and a custom Mauser which I converted to .308 all with Dura Coat. I have to figure out what to lase on them now. I don't want to make any quick decisions yet. I've been toying with the idea to put some artwork on my Savage bolt action but I don't know exactly what yet.

[Dan Hintz]

What's the deal with DuraCoat? It appears to be an epoxy-based paint for all I can tell, same stuff they sell for engine enamels and the like.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Sounds about right. It tougher than nails once it's had time to cure. I've had some guns that were coated thick enough that they were hard to etch through, taking 4 or 5 passes.

Kyle - I'm in the same boat as you. I've had my Mossberg and Glock for years now and still have not decided what to etch on them...

[kyle bonnell]

What's the deal with DuraCoat? It appears to be an epoxy-based paint for all I can tell, same stuff they sell for engine enamels and the like.

Dura Coat is a great being that it is still kinda flexible so it doesn't chip but will still hold up to being banged around. You don't have to bake it like other coatings. However, after buying one bottle of Dura Coat I have found out that it is a repackaged and marked up 500% product you can buy at Sherwin Williams by the gallon for around $90. If you buy directly from a Dura Coat dealer you can choose from hundreds of colors unlike the few colors Sherwin Williams offers.

[Bill Cunningham]

Looks like nice stuff, I really wish they would come up with a spraycan that outputs a 'realtree' finish

[Steven Wallace]

Bill, Spray on the dura coat and then use Hyrdo Graphic printing technique. Google "camo dipping". I just tried the MyDipKit and the results were fantastic, many patterns to choose from. As for engraving the metal parts, any signs of rust on them after time? Just Curious.

[kyle bonnell]

Steve, are you asking me or Chris about the rust?

[Chris DeGerolamo]

There has never been rust on the any AR's I have done.