CVA Hawken project

[skywarp]

Got a pile of rusty parts from a guy who lost interest in a project -- evidently some time ago -- for $5. It's most of a CVA "Hawken", in .54 cal. percussion. Upon a close look I'm not missing much. A ramrod thimble, a couple screws, and a rear sight. I found some .530 balls locally and with a clean-up and refinish of the gun I think I'll have a rifle read for late season deer hunting this fall after all. :grin:

Here's some "before" pics, as I got the gun.

The stock appears to be walnut. The steel parts are all covered in a layer of brown rust, to include the inside of the bore.

Spent some time cleaning up the barrel -- I like the look so far:

The best news is that with some naval jelly and steel wool the inside of the bore isn't half bad. It's got some scattered pitting, but I've got lots of milsurp rifles with worse bores that shoot just fine.

I'm working on the metal and stock right now and will post an update as soon as I have one. :thumbsup:

 

[SgtSchutzen]

Looks like ya found a nice "project" gun that should turn out to be a decent shooter and good deer slayer. The price was sure right :thumbsup: .
Even if ya can`t find the correct replacements for the missing parts, something that will work should be easy to find.
I`d like to find a deal like that myself. I`m going to need a winter project.

 

[bioprof]

What a deal. The hardware and barrel is already browned. Should save you a lot of work. :thumbsup:

 

[skywarp]

I've read on some other sites that some of the CVA rifles from this era were made of suspect steel and could be dangerous. Have you guys heard that at all? Should I stick to lite loads in here or can I shoot an 80-100gr deer hunting load?

TIA

 

[boar]

I have two of them. Good shooters. I use 80&90 grs 2f with round ball. Mine date back too 86. Start out first with some light loads, like 60grs and work up. Dilly

 

[boar]

The date is in front of the serial no. You can get parts from Deer Creek Products P.O. Box 246 Waldron, Indiana 46182-ph 765-525-6181 No web site. Good people to deal with. Dilly

 

[Pork Chop]

I've read on some other sites that some of the CVA rifles from this era were made of suspect steel and could be dangerous. Have you guys heard that at all? Should I stick to lite loads in here or can I shoot an 80-100gr deer hunting load?

TIA

That comes from a poor design on some of the early inlines that were prone to failure. I have never heard of a sidelock failing unless some numbskull loaded it with smokeless...

 

[R.M.]

Scuttlebut has it that CVA sidelock barrels are excellent shooters, and my experience agrees. Their locks and stocks might suck, but they're straight shooters.

 

[Bill Hall]

I've been trying to find a CVA barrel for years now, especially a .54. Every time I bid on one on ebay, or other auction sites, they end up going for way more than I want to pay. There was a guy where I used to work who had a .50 kit, and vowed that someday he was going to actually put it together. About once a month I would offer to buy the barrel out of his kit, but to no avail.

The sad part of the CVA sidelock story is that barrels are fantastic, but totally worthless if the rest of the rifle refuses to cooperate. I would love to build my daughter a light rifle around a CVA roundball barrel, anybody want to get rid of theirs? :grin: Bill

 

[skywarp]

Finally, an update! Finally got around to taking some pictures. Somehow I forgot to take one of the lock -- next time I have the camera set up I will.

Looking around the web, it's clear that this CVA rifle is styled after the Leman trade rifles. The patchbox and lock style are the giveaway. I found some hi-res photos of an original Leman online (trying to remember where I got them so I can share them too) and used that to model my rifle after.

I striped the stock using Behlen's Solar-Lux alcohol-based dye and the method described by Jack Brooks (The Classroom). I practiced first and it actually worked out rather well.

Looking at it now after not touching it for several months, I see several things I wish I had done different and/or that I want to fix. First the comb has a weird swoop in it that I forgot to clean up before I finished the stock. That's because the CVA sights were a mile high and after I installed the lower Leman-type sights I couldn't get my big head down on the stock enough. I lowered the comb to a useable level but ended up with a strange shape. It's comfy but looks goofy.

I'd also like to inlet a real entry pipe and nosecap to get rid of the wonky CVA nosecap. I also need to replace the lock bolts with some more authentic-looking ones and countersink the buttplate screw holes. I want to take some of the pimp-shine off of the Tru-Oil too, and maybe find a tinted varnish to use to get closer to the Leman look. What do you guys think about these plans?

The gun shoots (big .54cal BOOM) and I need to experiment with some patch thicknesses. I was using some .530s and generic pillow ticking and the dirtier the bore was, the better the gun shot. Just need more time -- but I think that aside from being a pain to clean, the rough bore will be okay.

As you can see from the before/after pics, I also reshaped the triggergaurd some, both lock panels, the forend, the cheekrest, etc., and replaced the brass ramrod thimbles with some steel CVA ones I found in a junk bin at my LGS. I made and inletted the lock bolt "sideplates" instead of using the weird brass washers the gun came with.

The stock wood was a pain to work with, but good practice. It alternated between splintery soft and rock hard (especially at the knot on the cheek side :shake, and I spent a lot of time scraping and stropping and in the end still ended up with a kind of wavy finish. You can't see where I glass bedded the tang and barrel at the breech and wedge in order to stabilize the tension on the wedge. (It seemed to vary a lot depending on how the tang screw was tightened, and it would keep going and going and going... not anymore).

So far, I have about $30 into this rifle and probably 40+ hours of swearing and sweating. :surrender:

Okay, anyway, here are the pictures.

 

That is some fine work and a great looking rifle. nice.

 

[skywarp]

I managed to find the link to the original Leman rifle I tried to model this one after. I would still like to make the nosecap/entry pipe match this better, but that will have to wait until I finish some other projects.

Okay, I guess it's against forum rules to link to that site. I don't want to steal their pictures either. Sorry. :idunno:

 

[S.Kenton]

What a GREAT find and a job well done! I really like the Striping on the stock! Now if I could find a nice project like that! :thumbsup: