My father passed this spring quite suddenly. All his guns came to me in the estate. He had a CVA Big Bore mountain rifle that he built from a kit in the late 1970's or maybe early 1980's.. I explained a bit more in another thread in the percussion section, but to make a long story short he only shot it a few times with little success. When it came to me I got it out this summer and was also having issues. The kit was listed as a 54 caliber, and that's what the barrel is stamped as, turns out its actually a 58 caliber big bore that was incorrectly stamped at the factory and I now have it shooting very well. My dad also had an old model 1892 44-40 that came to him from my uncle about 7 years ago. it had hung on my uncles wall with some other inherited firearms for over 50 years. When my dad passed so suddenly he had all kinds of projects on the go for me, leather knife sheaths etc, and walking into his shop after he passed was very difficult for me as it seemed he should be coming out from the house at any moment to continue work on the projects. I got brass, dies and bullets for the 44-40, and I got a deer with it a few weeks ago, I got the big bore figured out and it's going to the woods with me tomorrow. For my dad the passion was building the rifle from the kit and not so much hunting with it. For me it just seems like another unfinished project. I can't finish all the carpentry and other projects he started but for me getting these rifles shooting and being able to harvest a deer with them is helping me with closure. So tomorrow morning the weather looks like it will be a nice cool November blue bird Alberta day and I hope I can be successful with this rifle too and close another unfinished chapter!
