Cerakote Coating and Your Saiga

by Alexey Kruglov
Cerakote Coating and Your Saiga

Gun coatings can offer your firearm corrosion and abrasion resistance as well as a long-lasting finish. Cerakote firearms coatings are considered the best and offer higher performance and reliability over traditional finishes. Cerakote offers a wear rating of 6,000 cycles, compared to only 500 cycles from blueing and about 3,000 from black oxide. Is Cerakote a good option for your Saiga? Here's a more in-depth look at the advantages.

How Your Gun or Saiga Rifle Parts are Processed

  • First, your Saiga is professionally disassembled, if it isn't already. Any interior parts that shouldn't be coated will be set aside.
  • Next, all parts are hand degreased and brushed to remove grease deposits and carbon build-up. This necessary step prevents the media from becoming contaminated and ensure the best Cerakote finish.
  • All Saiga rifle parts to be coated will be stripped using aluminum oxide. This preparation allows the coating to adhere well. The parts must also be handled carefully now to prevent oil transfer from hands.
  • Now the parts are hand-sprayed with Cerakote using a HVLP gun.
  • Each piece is now cured.
  • Once everything cools, it's inspected and then reassembled by a gunsmith.

Benefits of Cerakote Coating After you've purchased a Saiga 12 for sale, you probably want to maintain it in proper working condition for some time. Left unprotected, your firearm will take a lot of work to keep rust at bay. Applying oil can help somewhat, but it requires frequent reapplication. Blueing, on the other hand, is attractive like Cerakote but not nearly as effective. Other options don't hold up well to scratching or chemicals.

Cerakote features a ceramic base and the baking process makes it incredibly hard and able to withstand abrasions and prevent rust. When it comes to corrosive conditions like salt water, Cerakote is the most protective finish available. Finally, Cerakote is available in many colors, including camouflage, that compliment Saiga rifles or shotguns.

Cerakote for Saiga Accessories & Pricing You can also have optics and other Saiga accessories matched to your firearm or refinished for a two-tone effect. For the Cerakote H-Series, which is the most durable of the two types of coating available, expect to pay around $300 for your rifle in one color, without the stock. A polymer stock usually costs about $100 extra. Magazines and mounts usually cost under $15 for one color and you'll need to get a separate quote for other accessories. Most companies that offer Cerakote coatings also charge fees if you want them to disassemble or reassemble your Saiga, so you can save money by doing this yourself. Legion USA offers very competitive pricing on Cerakote finish, please refer to gunsmithing page for more information.