You can, however, like any bare non stainless steel, it will generate rusy VERY quickly. If you leave it like that, you will have to wipe it down with a silicone cloth everytime you touch it, even under the gripps. You will also have to oil all the unfinished steel, and store it in an oiled wrap. Even those silicone gun wrapps won't be enough to prevent rust from forming. A soaked oil cloth would probably be the best wrap to store it in, or coat it in cosmoline or a similar strorage grease. Also, shooting any ammo through it-especially the milsurp corrosive stuff-means a very thorogh cleaning when your done. If you leave it for even a few hours you will start to get rust. If you do get rust, you will end up with serious pitting of the steel after you clean the rust off. My recommendation is this: Is you want a shiny silver gun, get it chromed. If it's not stainless steel, your gun's metal needs to be protected.