Which mountain rifle?

[lbothell]

I'll second the CVA mountain rifle, more of the plains era being cap rifle's, but good lines, they shoot, if you can find a Big Bore in 54, that's not been to beat. Or one of the early ones that's stamped Made USA, in 50. Good hunting rifle's.

Well that’s just what I got a 54 so I’m pretty happy and it’s a LOW serial number with a clean bore. As for changing it over I just did it to a cva squirrel so I’m not to worried about it but I might just leave it

 

[BP Addict]

Well that’s just what I got a 54 so I’m pretty happy and it’s a LOW serial number with a clean bore. As for changing it over I just did it to a cva squirrel so I’m not to worried about it but I might just leave it

I heard that you can do it with a 10mm bolt. There's a fellow who works at the Gun Works here in Springfield that's done quite a few!

Where'd you end up finding one?

Walt

 

[lbothell]

I heard that you can do it with a 10mm bolt. There's a fellow who works at the Gun Works here in Springfield that's done quite a few!

Where'd you end up finding one?

Walt

I found a converter bolt on eBay but you still need to do some file work and drilling but it’s good to have! For the squirrel I just dremeled off the drum and am using that for now. Going to weld a little bead over the hole it left, file it down and redrill we did it before on an old gun and it worked well. Plus if it doesn’t I can just unscrew the whole thing out and make another one. As for the 10mm bolt I know a guy who did that as well! He is actually the one I got the 54 off of. It was his first muzzleloader he ever bought, I told him not to sale it but he said he never shoots it and insisted on selling so I couldn’t pass it up. It’s ugly as sin the stock is, but the bore is amazing so that’s all that matters

 

[BP Addict]

It doesn't look all that bad! It's got some character. How does it feel lifting to your shoulder?

Is the barrel 15/16" or 1"?

Walt

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

So these pictures are off the internet they are not mine, but I will use them to represent what I’m looking for. Both these guns in the pictures are cva ones a mountain rifle the other is the hawkens. You can see the mountain rifle is just a little longer then the hawkens and has two pins in the stock compared to one.

I believe the original Hawkens also had two wedges. I'm not sure why. You gotta be careful that one or the other doesn't fall out while you are hunting.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Many years ago I had a used CVA Mountain Rifle come into the shop. It had a broken ramrod, a lock that did not work and a pretty rough bore. I took it home over the weekend. Replaced the ramrod with a spare I had laying around, cleaned and adjusted the lock and scrubbed the bore extensively. The old gal cleaned up pretty well and I sold it the following week if memory serves. It didn't come back with complaints, so I assume she was a shooter.

Nearly all used guns will clean up to a reasonable standard and most of 'em will put bullets into a deer's kill zone just fine.

 

[lbothell]

It doesn't look all that bad! It's got some character. How does it feel lifting to your shoulder?

Is the barrel 15/16" or 1"?

Walt

It’s a 15/16 or that’s what my tape measure says hahah it pulls up nice and balances nice as well and like I said the bore is just about new it’s clean. The more I look at the old thing it kinda grows on me hahaha. My biggest dilemma now is do I convert it to flint or leave it as percussion...

 

[Mtman725]

It doesn't look all that bad! It's got some character. How does it feel lifting to your shoulder?

Is the barrel 15/16" or 1"?

Walt

I had a 15/16's CVA 50 bored out to 54 by RH, I like it better then the 1" CVA Big Bore, it balance's better not so muzzle heavy.

 

[rfdr]

To each their own, and for me and "Southern mountain rifles" it's an iron mounted flintlock. Even in the later part of the 19th century flintlocks were very popular as they are far more self sufficient than spending hard earned pennies on caps when flints were free. Iron was also cheaper and easier to sort out than brass, and blacksmiths were gunsmiths too. As to the belief that "caps worked when flints didn't" that's just hogwash of the ignorant. A flint lock can be just as reliable as caps if not more so, just as fast if not faster with ignition than caps, far more serviceable friendly even out in the boonies, and can be made to work well in wet weather.

The offshore "trad muzzleloaders" are not junk but I avoid them like the plague for one major reason - patent breech plugs. Their ante-chamber is a PITA for both fouling control and cleaning. If you think otherwise, more power to ya, do enjoy, NOT my cup of 18th/19th century tea. I'll take a flat faced classic breech plug any day.

Offshore kits are nicknamed "screwdriver kits" because that's all it takes to stick together a functional gun, finish is optional. Having built a gaggle of flinters from kits, the best of the best are still those by Jim Kibler. They ain't screwdriver kits, you WILL need some tooling, know yer way around chisels, files, scrapers, and the like, and have some tool usage smarts. I've built a few, starting with a .54 Colonial about 4 years ago, just completed an SMR in .45, and have another Colonial .54 build up on the workbench.

 

[azmntman]

Thats a very nice rifle.

 

[BP Addict]

I had a 15/16's CVA 50 bored out to 54 by RH, I like it better then the 1" CVA Big Bore, it balance's better not so muzzle heavy.

I just bought a 1" barreled 54 from one of our members. It weighs the same as my 15/16", 50.

Walt

 

[akroguy]

My .50 Traditions St. Louis Hawken (yeah...."hawken"....?)...has an incredible barrel. Dead nuts in the X ring first shot off the bench. The hardware though, just OK but works. The set trigger had to be fixed, spring popped out one day at the range but not difficult. I might have booged up the install during the build (kit). I've toyed with building another rifle around just the barrel.

 

[BP Addict]

My .50 Traditions St. Louis Hawken (yeah...."hawken"....?)...has an incredible barrel. Dead nuts in the X ring first shot off the bench. The hardware though, just OK but works. The set trigger had to be fixed, spring popped out one day at the range but not difficult. I might have booged up the install during the build (kit). I've toyed with building another rifle around just the barrel.

I have one of those but with a single trigger. It came with a 1-66" RB barrel. The gun shoots better than I do!

I use it for teaching newbies who are not used to set triggers.

Walt

 

[tenngun]

not looking for period correct at all, I like the way the CVA mountain rifle looks in either 50 or 54 leaning towards the 54. Going to be a deer gun

Fact is if you toss a faux aged CVA in with some original mid nineteenth century rifles even the hard nosed stitch counter will have a time finding it.
Are you going elk hunting? Mule deer at long range( over fifty yards) if whitetail in the woods is your target a .50 is plenty. If it’s bigger or open range you might want a .54
Don’t let anyone tell you they ain’t good guns. They shoot just as good as one costing six times as much.
Only caveat is flint guns in CVA are week and often frustrating

 

[BP Addict]

The term "Mountain Rifle" was given to the half-stock Plains-style rifles by Manufacturers of reproduction guns, CVA & Jonathan Browning to be specific.

The same term is used when referring to those long rifles made in the Appalachia Mountains and surrounding areas making them true "Mountain" Rifles. The OP was referring to the former and not the latter when posing his question.

Walt

 

[Warren whitley]

Actually the rifles made by the Hawkens clan were somewhat uncommon out west. Those who ventured west usually carried the rifle they already had. They were big, heavy rifles and many wanted to save $$ (Hawkens rifles were rather costly) by just keeping with what they were familiar with. I have a SMR but at .36 caliber it's for squirrels, not deer.

This is my deer rifle I built from scratch it's ain't the style of Jacob Dobbs 32 inch Oct to round 54 cal with gain twist rifling barrel was rifled at gun makers hall at nmlra.

 

[LME]

It sounds as if you want a CVA Mountain Rifle. These have been out of production for many years, but the .50 caliber versions show up pretty regularly on the used gun market. The .58 (actually .575") Big Bore Mountain Rifles were produced in much smaller quantities, but you see them up for sale occasionally. CVA also made the Big Bore Mountain Rifles in .54 caliber, but these are really scarce. The Big Bore Mountain Rifles have a 1" x 32" barrel and no cap box on the buttstock, while the standard CVA Mountain Rifles have a 15/16" x 32" barrel and a German silver cap box. I have one of each, a .58 and a .50. I am small of stature and pretty thin, having lost some muscle mass with aging, but the Big Bore .58 balances very nicely for me. The CVA rear sight looks funny, but I get a very good sight picture with their standard factory sights. The Big Bore CVA Mountain Rifle handles well.

After these went out of production, they were very hard to find for a number of years. There seem to be more used ones for sale now than ever before. It is sad to say, but I'm afraid a lot of the original owners have either "gone under," or have seen the writing on the wall and elected to downsize their collections.

A .54 caliber Lyman Great Plains rifle would probably meet your needs. People who have them seem to like them, and they pop up for sale pretty regularly. The biggest complaint you hear is that they are heavy. Eh? Maybe ten pounds? The original plains rifles were most often in the 12-13 pound range, with many even heavier.

If you really, seriously want a mountain man rifle, you'll be looking for a late, fullstocked flintlock longrifle.

Good luck!

Notchy Bob

My first muzzle loading rifle was a CVA big bore mountain rifle .54 cal.. I let a friend talk me out of it and regret it to this day. I got it in 1982 and it was well made and accurate.

 

[reddogge]

I have a .50 Ithaca Hawken kit I put together in 1978. Unfortunately, you probably can't find one today. Great rifle though.

 

[hanshi]

This is my deer rifle I built from scratch it's ain't the style of Jacob Dobbs 32 inch Oct to round 54 cal with gain twist rifling barrel was rifled at gun makers hall at nmlra.

Very nice. I do like your rifle, looks very good to me.

 

[Dale Lilly]

Jonathan Browning Mountain rifle is great if you can track one down.

I have one. Great rifle but ... one word ... heavy. But then, I'm old. Dale