What is this piece?

[Joshua Hopkins]

Reassembling my CVA Hawken lock and this piece fell out. What is it and where does it go please? The lock looks fine as far as I can see from examples, but this came out of the slot when I was taking it off.

 

[necchi]

It's a tension spring to hold the ramrod in place.
It's held in place in the ramrod channel by the front lock bolt. It faces forward in the channel curved side down

 

[Brazos John]

I concur. I did the same thing and had to figure it out myself.
Put the lock screw in place with the spring (without the lock), and check it by inserting the ramrod.
If it's good, reassemble and have fun!

 

[longcruise]

Throw it away! You're going to lose it eventually anyway.

warm your ramrod over the kitchen stove and put a slight permanent bend in it. That eliminates the need for a retention spring.

 

[Joshua Hopkins]

Thanks lads! Pretty stressful 1st cleaning/reassembly, but I sure learned a lot. Hoping to go to a local range tomorrow.

 

[hanshi]

Yes, that's what that spring is for and not for the lock.

 

[Kansas Jake]

If you keep the spring in the gun and I do. When disassembling, loosen the lock bolts without removing and put masking tape over the screw heads to hold them in place. Pull the lock and clean. The screws may also be different lengths so that way they don’t get mixed up either.