Taping Your Color Guard Rifle - Tutorial
- , by Sean Smith
- 2 min reading time
Congratulations on your new color guard rifle. I know you are excited to get spinning, but it's very important you properly tape it first. The biggest oversight I see is when strapping tape is not used. Strapping tape has filaments that are critical to providing reinforcement at the stress points, as well as minimizing the chance of breakage.
What You’ll Need:
-Quality Electrical tape (white is most common)
-Strapping Tape
-Scissors or a craft knife
-Phillips screwdriver or drill with Phillips attachment (this is best)
-Paper clip or similar object for poking a hole in tape at the screw holes.
Step-by-Step Instructions (see diagram and video below):
-
Remove the bolt and strap
Wipe down the surface to remove any dust or debris. This helps the tape stick better. -
Wrap with strapping tape
Wrap the nose area, barrel area, neck area, and butt as shown in red on the diagram below. Overlap each wrap by about half. It's tricky, especially at the neck, but try to avoid creases by going slow. Poke a hole through the tape at the screw holes. -
Wrap with electrical tape
We recommend to start taping the nose and butt ends first, to protect the pads which get a lot of impact. You can even use a little extra. Proceed to wrap the same areas as in step two overlapping each wrap about about half. Poke a hole through the tape at the screw holes. If you want to tape the entire rifle, that's up to you. We see it wrapped both ways. -
Tape the strap screws
Shown as red circles on the diagram. This protects your hands and keeps the screws from loosening or getting lost -
Attach the strap and bolt
Line up the screws with the holes you made in the tape and gently tighten. Now you are ready to spin!
