Thread: duracoat experiences

Ok so the following pics are f my personal experience with both products not pics of others failed coatings from bad application. If the owners wish to share that experience Ill will leave that to them.

So Ill start with my Desert tech rifle that is Ceracoated from the factory. This is a work rifle so its not a babied safe queen, it is by no means abused but while I am careful not to knock it around it is carried and transported a lot so shows signs of cosmetic wear.

The Black alloy parts are in good shape with the exception of the front of the handgaurd which has worn back to the alloy in places and some of the most handled surfaces are a little glossier than the original matte finish.



One of the 2 magazines showed a lot of wear to the finish and got badly scratched up:





I stripped the grey Ceracoat back to bare metal and gave it a coat of matte black Duracoat.





This is both of my mags a year and a half on; the second Ceracoated grey mag is showing signs of wear and the duracoat has held up well with only minor scratches from the mag latch and mag well.






The chassis skins were factory black polymer but I wanted OD green. I prepped them and sprayed them with Duracoat tactical OD green without baking it and cured in in the sun only.
They have stood up to use very well! better than I expected. The only wear I can find is a small rub through at the front where is rubs on my pack while slung on my back and on the quad bike. There are also signs of glossier spots in the matte finish of the high wear areas.
The barrel shown in the last pic is my 19: light weight 6.5 Creedmoor barrel which I only painted a few months back but you can see the shiny spots from removing and fitting it in the chassis clamping system.
















The second example I have is CZ 527 Grendel chassis.
The action mag, barrel and suppressor was sprayed with Ceracoat (not by me) and I sprayed the chassis to match with Duracoat. the Ceracoat is notably older than the chassis job but as you can see all the sharp edges an high wear contact points on the mag have worn through. The barrel has worn to the S/S barrel where the suppressor bush rubs it.










My honest opinion is that Duracoat lasts better with the same prep and all other things being equal. Although the manifactures boast that "Duracoat doesnt wear" it absolutely does.. but I truely believe it wears less than Ceracoat in the examples and personal experience Ive seen. This is primarily because Ceracoat is applied thinner and for this reason marketed as a good coating of internal pistol and action parts.. I strongly disagree as would and honest applicator of their product.
I am from a aviation background where material anti corosive/wear coatings and treatments were of the upmost importance.. we used many milspec products with some nasty heath restrictions on them.
I used a Dupont milspec product that we used as an anti glare matte black paint in front of the cockpit that was an amazing product. I painted many AR15s etc with it and it held up better than both duracoat and ceracoat but the closest thing to the durability of this and other coating we used I have found has been Duracoat.