Showing off the new kid in town. CVA 50 cal. The stock will need some help.

[Mujiir]

 

[sawyer04]

Glad to see the old CVA's coming around, They were good weapons and especially the early ones.

 

[Mujiir]

This is my first ML. The Ser# is 013699. It doesn't have 'made in America', so it's not among the early ones. From the fit and finish on it, if it was a kit, it was very well done. I have no idea of when it was made, but my guess would be sometime in the 1980s. I will be stripping the finish and doing a dark stain with an oil finish. It must have sat in a wet corner for a while to have the finish look like it does. The wood seems undamaged, the butt plate is not rusty, but the finish is chipping off and nasty. I have refinished several older walnut stocks in the past, but recommendations are always welcome. It needs a good cleaning and some oil as it sits. Are there any CVA aficionados out there? I would love to know more if anyone is willing to share knowledge.

 

[sawyer04]

his is my first ML. The Ser# is 013699. It doesn't have 'made in America'

Highly possible assembled in the USA. with imported barrel.

 

[Muddly]

Awhile back I discovered Minwax Antique Oil. Superb stuff! Easy to use, fills pores quickly, is decently durable, doesn't badly water spot. Have to have the light right to see a slight dulling if you leave the water on it.
Touches up easy too. I used it on a couple rifles and I'm very pleased. One fella said it was everything TruOil was supposed to be. Have to say, I absolutely agree!

 

[deermanok]

Nice looking rifle. Should be a good shooter for you.

 

[rafterob]

Congratulations on being part of the CVA Mountain rifle club! The Beech stocks can be a bear to take stain. I have used leather stain with really good outcomes.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The barrels made in Spain for CVA were very good. Just because it is not marked as being made in the USA doesn't mean that it won't be accurate on target.

 

[Stykbow]

Good lookin’ rifle.

 

[tommygun]

I use Tru Oil on my builds. It works good and you can make it dark or , light as you want.

 

[BigBeast]

This is my first ML. The Ser# is 013699. It doesn't have 'made in America', so it's not among the early ones. From the fit and finish on it, if it was a kit, it was very well done. I have no idea of when it was made, but my guess would be sometime in the 1980s. I will be stripping the finish and doing a dark stain with an oil finish. It must have sat in a wet corner for a while to have the finish look like it does. The wood seems undamaged, the butt plate is not rusty, but the finish is chipping off and nasty. I have refinished several older walnut stocks in the past, but recommendations are always welcome. It needs a good cleaning and some oil as it sits. Are there any CVA aficionados out there? I would love to know more if anyone is willing to share knowledge. View attachment 100465

I have four mountain rifles, just finished a kit that I found at a gun show for 80 bucks! Sat in a barn for over 20 years and was pretty rusty but I got it cleaned up nicely. Also working on a big bore in .54 now. All good shooters and accurate for sure! One appears to be a factory finished one but the stock finish is peeling off too, maybe bad CVA finish. Good luck

 

[Gtrubicon]

I bought a mountain rifle in 45 several months ago, I absolutely love it. It fits me very well Andy is very accurate. I also would like to refinish my stock and make it darker. Keep us posted on your progress!

 

[brushblind]

I use citris strip, usually takes 2 applications. Steel wool when dry then apply your fav. stain until the color is to your liking. A little more fine steel wool, when dry start rubbing your oil in, I like to use a peice of thick wool felt for this, just keep going until your satisfied with the look. Hopefully your stock is maple and not beech.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I use citris strip, usually takes 2 applications. Steel wool when dry then apply your fav. stain until the color is to your liking. A little more fine steel wool, when dry start rubbing your oil in, I like to use a peice of thick wool felt for this, just keep going until your satisfied with the look. Hopefully your stock is maple and not beech.

I do something similar. I use Fiebing's leather dye, which is alcohol based. When the color is right and dry, I apply the oil finish with 4-0 steel wool, as that pushes any raised wood fiber "whiskers" back down.

LD

 

[BigBeast]

This is my first ML. The Ser# is 013699. It doesn't have 'made in America', so it's not among the early ones. From the fit and finish on it, if it was a kit, it was very well done. I have no idea of when it was made, but my guess would be sometime in the 1980s. I will be stripping the finish and doing a dark stain with an oil finish. It must have sat in a wet corner for a while to have the finish look like it does. The wood seems undamaged, the butt plate is not rusty, but the finish is chipping off and nasty. I have refinished several older walnut stocks in the past, but recommendations are always welcome. It needs a good cleaning and some oil as it sits. Are there any CVA aficionados out there? I would love to know more if anyone is willing to share knowledge. View attachment 100465

 

[BigBeast]

My latest mountain rifle, laurel mountain stain from track of the wolf, genuine oil finish, darkened all the furniture, hope you can get a dark finish like this!

 

[Hermit Tim]

This is my first ML. The Ser# is 013699. It doesn't have 'made in America', so it's not among the early ones. From the fit and finish on it, if it was a kit, it was very well done. I have no idea of when it was made, but my guess would be sometime in the 1980s. I will be stripping the finish and doing a dark stain with an oil finish. It must have sat in a wet corner for a while to have the finish look like it does. The wood seems undamaged, the butt plate is not rusty, but the finish is chipping off and nasty. I have refinished several older walnut stocks in the past, but recommendations are always welcome. It needs a good cleaning and some oil as it sits. Are there any CVA aficionados out there? I would love to know more if anyone is willing to share knowledge. View attachment 100465

Welcome to the club. You picked a great rifle to start with. I've always loved the CVA products. Got my first black powder deer with a CVA Bobcat my wife got me for Christmas nearly 25 years ago. It was $79.00 at walmart. Had many a CVA rifle since then but the mountain rifle still hasn't made it into my safe yet. But I will add one sooner or later. I hope it works out well for you.

 

[dragnetbill]

This is my first ML. The Ser# is 013699. It doesn't have 'made in America', so it's not among the early ones. From the fit and finish on it, if it was a kit, it was very well done. I have no idea of when it was made, but my guess would be sometime in the 1980s. I will be stripping the finish and doing a dark stain with an oil finish. It must have sat in a wet corner for a while to have the finish look like it does. The wood seems undamaged, the butt plate is not rusty, but the finish is chipping off and nasty. I have refinished several older walnut stocks in the past, but recommendations are always welcome. It needs a good cleaning and some oil as it sits. Are there any CVA aficionados out there? I would love to know more if anyone is willing to share knowledge. View attachment 100465

Just as an aside, you mention stripping the finish from the stock, I've found that that older CVA finish scrapes off very easily. I've removed the finish from a similar conditioned stock with light scraper pressure in about ten minutes. That older finishes just sits on top of the wood and doesn't seem to penertate or stain. Just an option I thought I would mention. Good luck with her.

 

[Mujiir]

Just as an aside, you mention stripping the finish from the stock, I've found that that older CVA finish scrapes off very easily. I've removed the finish from a similar conditioned stock with light scraper pressure in about ten minutes. That older finishes just sits on top of the wood and doesn't seem to penertate or stain. Just an option I thought I would mention. Good luck with her.

This is exactly what I did. The old finish is brittle and just kind of flakes off with light scraping. I'm not sure it will ever be a shooter... the barrel looks pretty bad. But that seems to be the way for online purchases. Still, I will do my best to bring her back to some semblance of 'pretty'. Here is the first stain attempt. I will try a little blending by rubbing her down with 0000 steel wool. It will get a hand rubbed oil finish.

 

[BigBeast]

Your stock looks great already, some of the mountain rifles had some nice figure in the wood grain!