Cerakote Scope finish??

[ShawnC]

Been on the lookout for a silver scope for a squirrel gun without breaking the bank. Seems like most reputable brands quit making a silver scope from the factory and everything else second hand seems over priced or is a "scratch and dent" model that I don't particularly trust on eBay.

I stumbled across US Cerakote which seems like a nice aftermarket coating but I was just curious if anyone here has any experience with them or the longevity over their coating over time.

Let me know if you guys have any experience with them!

US Cerakote

us-cerakote.com

 

[mike4]

There's no full accounting for variations in visual tastes, but I think the move to black scopes is because black looks pretty good with everything, including stainless and other silver finish firearms. Better not to manage twice the SKUs in black and silver, and put SKU variations into different reticle options, etc.

A lot of black older scopes had almost a mirror finish. Now most black scopes have a matte finish that a coating will bond to more effectively. You can't heat up a scope so you are limited to air dry Cerakote. It's supposed to be good for corrosion resistance, but is not great for abrasion resistance as you can see if you search up photos of Cerakoted USMC M45A1 pistols. I think it works best on something like over coating an AR where already have an anodized metal surface plus a matte protective coating, which is also true of a matte finish scope. And you typically are not going to abrade a scope's finish like you do a pistol going in and out of a holster. In short, this not a bad application for Cerakote. I have no idea how silvery there silver finishes look or how closely you could match your firearm finish.

That said, not "breaking the bank" suggests looking for a budget solution and you are going to have cost plus a lot of work putinto a Cerakote finish, or just plain more cost if you pay someone skilled to do the finish. Do you already have an air brush and developed skills adjusting for coating viscosity and laying on coats without developing runs? If not, you can give up on refinishing on a limited budget. To me a cheaper scope is not worth the added cost, and with a nicer scope I don't think I would be recoating it, taping off and spraying near the coated lens, etc. You have to do a really careful job of masking things off and de-greasing with a solvent without damaging fragile lens coatings. You can't just scrape off or dissolve overspray on a scope lens, like do can on a window pane painting a house.

Also one application flaw or scratch and you have black showing through silver, which kind of negates all the cosmetic effort in the first place. If the rifle is something like a stainless 10/22 I think it would be easier to use a black scope and add another contrasting element to balance the looks like a black/blued barrel band.

(Somewhere around here I have an ancient, once-mounted but unfired Burris silver scope, but I think it's only 2x and I know it was an extended eye relief pistol scope, so I'm unsure how the eye relief functions at the closer distance rifle-mounted.)

 

[ShawnC]

Hey Mike4!

I appreciate all of the information and advice! The US Cerakote link that I posted originally is for scopes that have already had the coating applied professionally, not a DIY type of application. I certainly do not pretend to have any skills or expertise in that area. With that being said, I also bought an old school Leupold 3-9x40 scope yesterday so now I don't have to worry about it anyway haha!

 

[Hookeye]

A non adjustable objective big game ( standard ) 3-9x should be usable at 4x.....at 25 yards. Maybe 6x at 50 yards.

Leupold can change the parallax to rimfire. Cost used to be 25 bucks plus shipping.

 

[Gabriel]

A non adjustable objective big game ( standard ) 3-9x should be usable at 4x.....at 25 yards. Maybe 6x at 50 yards.

Leupold can change the parallax to rimfire. Cost used to be 25 bucks plus shipping.

Leupold doesn't do any custom work like that anymore.

 

[Hookeye]

They used to do it even after the custom shop closed.

Back then I felt the overall cost not worth the hassle. So changed mine myself.

Who knows what itd cost for a such a simple type of service these days.

Considering Leupold sold me 4 new scopes over the years that were messed up ( 3 fixed, 1 replaced ) ....a stupid charge for such now would honk me off.

 

[Gabriel]

They used to do it even after the custom shop closed.

I wanted the parallax to my 1.5 - 5 adjusted and a reticle change in a different optic, but they emailed me back stating that was a custom shop job and they didn't do things like that anymore. This was about three years ago. I saw somewhere on their website recently that they still don't offer those services.

 

[Hookeye]

Reticle changes were indeed custom shop and the price went up before they stopped.

Parallax change requires no parts inventory.
I emailed a couple yrs ago and they shot me a price. Read on another forum it went up.
May have since been discontinued, dunno.

Rather than mess w shipping hassle, I just did the parallax adjustment myself.

 

[Hookeye]

Scopes are an odd size so finding a decent box is a PITA. Usually modify a box to be sensible on shipping. So that plus actual shipping cost.....kind of a pain.

Even if such work was still available, I wouldnt mess with sending something unless it was a mid level or higher scope.

The scope i did was a VX1 purchased new.
Matte, didnt leave a mark on it

 

[mike4]

The US Cerakote link that I posted originally is for scopes that have already had the coating applied professionally

I am not entirely with the program! My fault for not following the link. You probably deduced that I interpreted it as a link to the actual Cerakote coating products.

In the follow-on discussion sorry to hear about the decline in Leupold service, which often reflects a failure to retain the most knowledgeable employees. I have a couple of older Leupold scopes that were the higher end of their line at the time and a couple of Rifleman scopes on 22LR rifles. That's not adding to my confidence if any of them ever need warranty service. Those type of cuts often come along with a failure to maintain a stock of repair parts for older models.