Is there a way to dull the shiney barrel bluing on a rifle without parkerizing it?? Just a working rifle, so I'm not worried about it looking pretty. Thanks!!

You could have it bead blasted and re-blued.

My Browning had the typical shine on stock and metal.I just had it repolished with 400 grit which makes a nice matt finish.Beadblasting is the other option.

As above, have a riflesmith shot or bead blast the external metalwork then have it hot blacked, this wil leave a mat / satin finsh without the risk of glare, IMO it also makes for a better looking gun.

Sidegrinder and 60grit pads. Then lay it in the yard so the dew hits it.

One treatment should do it for you.

If it is a M70(especially a rag Pre-64), you can skip the Sidegrinder and go straight to the dew.

Thanks guy's, Mete do you say that you just hand-polished it yourself, and that just doing this dulled the shine? I hope so, since this is just what I had in mind to do the job without a gunsmith.

If you sand/polish or bead blast enough to dull the surface of the metal you are probably also going to remove a very good portion of the existing finish that will need to be replaced with something to protect the metal.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick 0311:
If you sand/polish or bead blast enough to dull the surface of the metal you are probably also going to remove a very good portion of the existing finish that will need to be replaced with something to protect the metal.

That is correct. The gloss is not in the blueing perse, but is a result of highly polished metal before the blueing is even done. So there are only really two ways to go from gloss to matte, one is to do something that will actually alter (remove) the existing blueing, like abrasives or acids. Or the only other alternative is to apply something over the blueing like a layer of semi gloss or matte coating.