One of the drawbacks to lots of dry practice and shooting is that the finish on your weapons will wear more quickly - unless you have a Glock. This is especially true if you bought a Sig Sauer pistol with their K-Coat finish. Supposedly, the K-Coat is supposed to be a more corrosion resistant finish and since I work around water, I thought that it would be worthwhile. While the finish does work as advertised, it isn't applied to the sights which manage to rust, and it also wears very quickly. I've been told that its a great honor to have a gun with a well worn finish - it shows you've been working - but I didn't like the idea of bare metal.

I had been looking for alternative finishes for some time. One of the options that seemed particularly appealing was offered by Rocky Mountain Arms and is called BearCoat. I read a very favorable article about the finish in SWAT magazine and filed that tidbit away. For those who don't know, BearCoat is a teflon finish. The pistol is completely disassembled and all parts but springs, the chamber, and the barrel have a very thin (like microns) coat of teflon applied. This is supposed to be good because the teflon should completely stop the pistol from corroding. Also, teflon is a very smooth finish which means that friction is reduced between parts like the slide and frame, making the weapon more reliable.

I eventually spoke with representatives of the company twice, once at a SHOT show and once at a SOF show. I was assured that the finish was marvelous, wore well, and was generally the answer to my prayers. I even asked about one of my concerns, the use with kydex holster, and was assured the finish would hold up. I was reassured when I found out that Leas Baer used BearCoat on the custom pistols he produced for FBI HRT. I actually got to fondle one of these pistols and its was beautiful.