Why the hatred for CVA?

[Idaho Ron]

I had a CVA about 30 years ago. I didn't like it at all. That was my take then and I have not seen one that can change my mind. I don't shoot CVA but I don't care that you do. Ron

 

[rabjr]

Yes I hate them, they are not allowed in my house and I want nothing to do with them. The reason why is and I have posted this more than once, I worked in a Bait & Tackle Shop in the 80's where one end of the rack would be T/C's lined up and the other the cheapest CVA's my Boss could get. To many guys would rather spend 100 bucks than 300 and I sat there through a lot of irate customers coming back, time and time again how they missed the deer or with broken parts. We sold 12 "Fronteer's" once and had 9 come back within two weeks, all with broken parts and you could see how cheap these guns were put together.

It was sickening and I did my best to stir guys to the more expensive T/C. But this is all my opinion and what I want from a gun, if you happen to like the brand fine, I hope you enjoy your gun but hell no I'll never own one. :v

 

[vern faulkner]

Come on Swampy, tell us how you really feel about them CVA's. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Vern

 

[runnin lead]

In the mid 80's I picked up a clearence sale
CVA flintlock kit cheap,the lock was junk
I went to a muzzleloading shop looking for a drop in or near drop in replacement, I guess L&R didn't make them yet & they said they didnt make anything like that.
I decided that I was going to buy a hammer & a drum & nipple & convert it to a caplock.
A friend of mine said don't do that , I want it.
I gave him the rifle for future considerations,
the future considerations turned out to be
carving of some ducks on my muzzleloading shotgun stock.
That guy can realy do some nice carving so I came
out way ahead on that one .

 

[rabjr]

Come on Swampy, tell us how you really feel about them CVA's. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Vern

I thought I covered it rather nicely actually, short and to the point. :wink: :v

 

[Bretwalda]

I had many friends who purchased the CVA kit guns in college (We could not aford much else :idunno: ) and we all worked together to finish and build them. Our skills we not exceptional, but we were not ignorant either, as a gentleman by the name of BEE from Zanesville Ohio assisted us as needed (he was an old builder who gave advice and direction but was not physically able to do the work for us). Lock probems, main spring problems, precarved stocks that were not correctly drilled :shake: ...we had it all. We labored and finely got them together, after several hundred rounds through them, they smoothed up enough to be fairly accurate, but then the problems with springs and trigger linkages occured to the point that we were trying to replace components when or if we could get them :cursing: . The trouble and experience was enough that I said "never again" :surrender: and so it is. If you have one and it works well for you, I am very happy :grin: . But I have not had good fortune with them and I would never buy one again :nono: .

 

[vern faulkner]

You did my friend, you did. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to add a little levity into this thread. :grin: :grin:
Vern

 

[rabjr]

Ahh yes, I forgot about their infamous kits. A friend who knew nothing about putting one together had a CVA Kentucky long rifle kit and brought it over to me one day. This was early 80's, we opened the box and just the act of picking up the trigger guard from the styrofoam box snapped it in half to our shock. It was obvious it had a casting defect and the person packing the box had to have noticed it. :shake: The next thing was the barrel looked odd and when we looked closer it was basicly center bored on one end but the other was wayy off to one side. That was enough for me, packed it back up and wished him luck getting a new trigger guard and replacing the barrel if he wanted go further. I never saw that kit again. :shake:

 

[BadHorse]

Maybe you should start building your own rifles..Also how long have you been a living historian?

first off i do build some of my own rifles. second, several years now, and i love the living history thing. but like i said, my frame size was just to much to shoot the CVA kenatucky in any comfortable fashion. the rifle has served my daughter just fine! im not what you would call a "hater", they just dont work for me. i do believe they have their place as a beginners rifle. after all we all started somewhere.

 

[BadHorse]

Many hold a lower opinion of the factory guns for a number of reasons which have been mentioned some say the are great and some say not so good, one really has to try both factory and custom to be able to make a valid comment on the merits of either.One might spend their life gobbling down Big Macs and thbink it is the best lunch there is....untill someone gives them a plate of prime rib.I have owned 6-8 CVA'a and none can compare to a custom with a quality barrel and lock, but will do fine for those who have no interest in history or higher quality equipment.

i own both customs, and a very high end factory gun ( made by Ithaca), and i have Lyman GPR's (middle of the road facotry). the bottom line here is you get what you pay for. theres no way a CVA hawken will out shoot my Ithaca Hawken. thats just a simple fact! last weekend i was out shooting, and i hit a rock climbing piton from 150 yards out in a 15 mph cross wind with my Ithaca, and yes i had a spotter helping me. i took 3 tries but i got it. i cant help but think that would be alot harder with the newer CVA's. i do know the older CVA's with USA stamped in the barrel have great barrels! made by douglas.

 

[Shine]

CVA no longer makes a sidelock rifle they have'nt in years. Kind of ironic after they started so many into this hobby. And there were a few CVA mountain rifles made with US barrels. I have a friend that has one and its not a green mountain replacement.

 

[tg]

I think we should all chip in and get Swampy a used CVA for his birthday :idunno:

 

[J.D.]

"the owner and pinhead supporters'


Hey JD, I like that, can I use it? Buzzzzzzzzzzzz

You don't need my permission to use it. Mike Brooks used the term very aptly in one of his posts, and I thought the term was a proper description of the know nothings on the forum who strive to inflict their ignorance on the rest of the members. :v :rotf:

I have an old CVA lock that I can contribute to Swampys new rifle, if someone can come up with other parts. :grin:

God bless

 

[Zonie]

Not a bad idea but Swampy said he wouldn't own a factory made CVA.

I bet if we find a old CVA KIT that was put together by someone who was all thumbs that would make his day!

Who knows? Just to prove the gun is worthless he might actually take it out and fire it only to find that it works quite well. :rotf:

 

[rabjr]

Not a bad idea but Swampy said he wouldn't own a factory made CVA.

I bet if we find a old CVA KIT that was put together by someone who was all thumbs that would make his day!

Who knows? Just to prove the gun is worthless he might actually take it out and fire it only to find that it works quite well. :rotf:

Nope, I'd actually give it away to the nearest kid who's parent would allow him/her to have it.

 

[Walks Alone]

Some may actually hate them, some are just being snobs, but those that like their CVA's like them for good reason. They do shoot even if they didn't cost much.

I never owned a custom ML myself, never wanted one and I never will. And while I've have both I prefer the cappers to the rock locks. All probably because PC/HC doesn't matter that much to me now days as long as it's not an in-line, and putting my dollars on custom modern firearms held a much higher priority all my life. While I did reenact off and on from the early 70's, I was a hunter first, second and last. For the shooting I did the TC's and CVA's both did the job just fine. They took a lot of game and the CVA's won a lot of rondy matches for me. So I have only owned a bunch of TC's since the early 70's, and several CVA's bought later for muzzleloading to speak from. Best shooter out of all of them I've owned is still my CVA Mountain rifle. So I never saw a need to fix what wasn't broke (and I've never had a part break on any CVA or TC). Fit and finish is obviously not as good on "most" CVA's even just compared to a TC, but that's how they kept the prices way down. Most is an easy fix if you really care. An exception is my CVA Siber pistol that is quite high grade and it is one fine shooter.

Bottom line IMO, if you are satisfied with whatever brand/model/lock you shoot it matters not what others think. You shoot muzzleloaders to please you, not them.

 

[RickD]

How many custom rifles have you built and how long have you been a builder??I really wasnt aware you made custom rifles

 

[paulvallandigham]

If someone wasn't living through those days when CVA was freshly on the market, and saw all the problems first hand, you simply cannot understand the strong feelings that people have about those guns and that company.

I saw it at my gun club, as newbies showed up with both factory and kit CVA rifles that had all the problems. Thankfully, we had a few of the good ones, and the owners of those rifles were able to help the newbies fix theirs. But a lot of sweat, time, and money was spent fixing guns that should never left the factory in that condition, and lots of them were traded or sold so that the owner could buy a better gun.

The only complaint I have not heard about those early guns was the quality of the barrel.

The guns were accurate, if you could get all the rest of the parts to work to get it to fire! :shocked2: :hatsoff:

 

[BadHorse]

How many custom rifles have you built and how long have you been a builder??I really wasnt aware you made custom rifles

been doing it about 3 years, i really dont advertise the fact. ive done 6 customs. i just fool around with it

 

[rabjr]

Well yes some of us are considered snobs for voicing our opinions. Although I do actually hate them after what I saw of them, if anyone wants to consider me a snob for saying how it was, thats ok. We obviously had two very different experiances with this company and I might add I knew nothing about custom guns at the time. I hunted and used some form of a T/C up until the late 90's and they always served me well, no complaint's.

Like I said before if your happy with your gun, great, I'm glad for you but it's something I want no part of, thats all. :v