Why Do People "Paint" Firearms ?

[tombogan03884]

 If you are doing a winter camo pattern don't use black, use shades of blue.
For quick winter camo suit, take one of those white paper "painters coveralls" and spray irregular patches of light blue.
FQ, the thing about black has nothing to do with the burlap, as far as I could figure when I heard about it  because black absorbs heat if seen through a thermal imager it shines "Like a beacon in the night" .

[Badgersmilk]

For what it's worth, I've read from a few sources Beretta doesn't even offer camo in any other country than our's.  They ship black, and are camo'd up after they hit our border.  Car manufactures do the same thing with chrome trim, stickers, and flashy gadgets nobody else in the world wants on their products.

+1 on the rust deterrent idea.  And +1 on it "breaking up the outline".

If you got an honest answer why most people did it, it probably wouldn't be for the practical reasons, but because they saw a military rifle painted that way in a picture.  ANYTHING the military has, wannabe's buy!  Cough, cough, AR's!  Checked the price on a Garand lately?  Hummers, tacticool vests, the list goes on and on.   

[Ulmus]

I painted my HiPoint carbine cause I hated the semi-shiny black plastic and felt I couldn't really hurt the resale value of it anyway.

[tombogan03884]

 I like what BM did with the "bed liner" paint on that wood stock.