CVA Mountain Rifle... salvageable?

[bwiggins1985]

Great job! I’ve seen barrels in worse shape than that one and they shot just fine. I would probably fire lap that one and I bet you have a shooter. Definitely try a few shots first... it may need nothing more at all!

whats fire lapping?

 

[S.Kenton]

Good call on drilling out that lock screw and retapping. Man your a worker! Can’t wait to see it all done up!

 

[S.Kenton]

I can’t beleive you cleaned the tarnish off the silver or brass.Some of the guys on here actually pay to have the metal look that tarnished...

 

[bwiggins1985]

I am trying to make her all shinny and new again I have the silver looking nice and brushed right now I think it will turn out pretty sharp!!!!

 

[cvco]

Id have to see it up close. Some guns look like goners but clean up well. 0000 steel wool and oil or just a copper penny will clean up the barrel, and the trigger and lock and wood will clean up too, so its just down to the bore. Get the price down and go for it. Clean up the bore best you can and see how it shoots. It might be fine and if not, you CAN replace the barrel but that wont be worth it unless its a down price for the gun. If you have cash to burn and like projects, great; if you are on a budget and want to be shooting, keep walking. That said, I dont personally think CVA is worth much effort.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Your biggest problem in putting the rifle back together is getting the drum to properly align with the threaded hole in the breech plug. It can be done, but it is a tedious process. Get a bolt from Lowe's with the same threads as the drum to use for alignment. However since you drilled and tapped the tumbler, I have confidence that you can put your rifle back together.

Obviously you, @bwiggins1985, know what the drum or bolster looks like. Fortunately, Zonie has provided pictures of the CVA breech in a cutaway that should give you the knowledge to get the drum reinstalled. Check out the image in the attachment.

For those who don't know, this is what a CVA style Ardesa breech plug and drum look like. Ardesa makes the same guns for Traditions now that CVA has stopped importing them.

View attachment 49087

 

[bwiggins1985]

Id have to see it up close. Some guns look like goners but clean up well. 0000 steel wool and oil or just a copper penny will clean up the barrel, and the trigger and lock and wood will clean up too, so its just down to the bore. Get the price down and go for it. Clean up the bore best you can and see how it shoots. It might be fine and if not, you CAN replace the barrel but that wont be worth it unless its a down price for the gun. If you have cash to burn and like projects, great; if you are on a budget and want to be shooting, keep walking. That said, I dont personally think CVA is worth much effort.

Well seeing how I already bought the rifle and have taken it apart and redone pretty much everything...its kind of a mute point lol

Your biggest problem in putting the rifle back together is getting the drum to properly align with the threaded hole in the breech plug. It can be done, but it is a tedious process. Get a bolt from Lowe's with the same threads as the drum to use for alignment. However since you drilled and tapped the tumbler, I have confidence that you can put your rifle back together.

Obviously you, @bwiggins1985, know what the drum or bolster looks like. Fortunately, Zonie has provided pictures of the CVA breech in a cutaway that should give you the knowledge to get the drum reinstalled. Check out the image in the attachment.

I am going to mark an arrow or etch the face of the breach hole in the drum that points straight. I am probably going to re tap the thread holes in the barrel and the breach plug to make sure they are clean and easy to install. I am going to file the drum down square so I can use a crescent wrench to tighten it up nice and square.

 

[bwiggins1985]

Here are the updated pictures of the re-blued parts and the progress on the stock. I re-blued the parts last night and soaked them in WD40, checked them today and gave them another coat and wrapped them back up to make sure the blue cures well! I have stripped the original finish on the stock and have sprayed 2 coats of spray polyurethane. I let it hang and dry overnight and this morning I gave the stock a light buff with a scotch bright pad and applied the 3rd coat. I might do 4 coats....its a matte finish ploy which looks nice and soft! Brings out a little bit of the texture of the grain and I think the light contrast with the dark blue finish will look great! I still need to polish the silver furniture. I will work on that today as well as the bore...I actually have to go to harbor freight today to return something so I will probably grab some lapping compound.

Re-blued Metal!


Stock with 2 coats!

 

[S.Kenton]

That said, I dont personally think CVA is worth much effort.

I agree, just go ahead and send that mountain rifle along with the revolver I got from ya... I’ll dispose of it for ya!

 

[William Lincoln]

Was it CVA that had the breech plugs blowing out and lawsuits awhile back?
I like them and this one is looking better all along. You have some corrosion
to work on but not bad enough to buy a barrel. If you can punch coffee can
lids at 60-75 yds you have a great deer rifle for cheap. And you know what
you got. Next step, lets see you try it out and some targets.

 

[firestick]

Well I for one am impressed. You have done a lot of labor of love on this and when it is done you'll have a nice looking I suspect shooting rifle that you can truly call YOURS.

 

[Bad Karma]

whats fire lapping?

Loading a patch or bullet with an abrasive compound and fire it over a light powder charge. Clean to bare steel and repeat until the barrel is as smooth as you want it...

 

[Grenadier1758]

If you do fire lapping, take extra time cleaning to remove all the lapping compound from the barrel.

 

[Bad Karma]

If you do fire lapping, take extra time cleaning to remove all the lapping compound from the barrel.

I’ve just cleaned as usual. But it wouldn’t hurt to use an extra patch or two.

 

[bwiggins1985]

Well tonight I put it in the vice and scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed... with wd40 and copper brush, then copper brush wrapped withsteel wool! You can definitely see the little bit of pitting where all the gunk was that I found in the barrel. More than likely it was a powder charge. I am guessing they pulled the ball and the powder charge was wet or something and it never was removed. The steel wool seemed to polish the bore a bit and I think it will work pretty good when I get to the range!

 

[bwiggins1985]

So after the “scrub fest” I threw it all together!
This afternoon I sanded and polished all the silver furniture!
Sanded with the Dremel with 220 grit

Time for the Brasso!
Polished with an emery cloth on the dremel


I put the lock all back together, and I polished all the internals! The hole I drilled and tapped worked out great! I ended up using a brass screw and washer. I think it looks good!


So with all that I started fitting all the polished parts into the finished stock. Like a glove!

After 4 coats of Matt polyurethane the stock turned out awesome I think! Super smooth with a nice warm color!

I then worked on the breech plug and the bolster. I ended up squaring the bolster with a file so I could use an 11 mm end wrench to tighten it up. The breech plug fit a 10 mm wrench. I pre threaded everything to make sure the threads were good. I marked the bolster with an index mark to show the forward hole to have the flash path hit the powder lol! Note the silver mark.

And now to the second part lol!!! Ran out of picture space!

 

[bwiggins1985]

Part 2
I ran the tap through the nipple hole because when I took it off it marred it up a bit and wouldn’t go in.

And then finally.... drum roll!!!!!

Refinished CVA Mountain!

I did have to bend the hammer a little bit to the side to hit the nipple square. I went ahead and installed the factory sights. I want to switch those out to a rear peep or tang sight and possibly a globe front sight or a nice fiber optic one! I am waiting on the pins for the stock. I ended up buying 2 new ones to replace the one that I do have lol.

Over all I think it turned out great! Spent $150 shipped to the house and I bought some poly and polish and boom! Brand new rifle!!!!

OLD

NEW!!!

 

[mooman76]

Nice!

 

[Eutycus]

I imagine you somewhat enjoyed this project, shame it's over or is it just now really starting? Now get out there and enjoy it. Give it that used look.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Turned out nice let us know how it shoots.