Why the hatred for CVA?

[YoungGunner]

Thank you ALL for the very helpful information. I do love my CVA and although I have not yet shot it and had a chance to get it sighted In I do love that rifle over all of my centerfires and my little .32 simply because I made it. I love how Walks Alone said "I was a hunter first, second and last." because that's all I am. I love the history part of shooting a traditional gun, and making all the traditional accoutrements but I will always be a hunter and I will always make the most ethical shots with the most ethical rifle I can, and if that means that I only use 95 grains of powder as a hunting load in my .54 then that means that my longest shot on DEER sized game will be 75 yards and 50 yards as the farthest for elk. I am very interested to hear all your stories about people getting turned off by rifles not being up to par, and I believe that as long as I know that I worked hard to finish the task then I will be as happy about my rifle as any other item that I have made. I cannot thank all of you enough for your info,tips, (and a bit of arguing) because it gives me that much more pride that I finished something that others would have given up on and I finished something that others are proud of. Thank you all-YG

 

[rabjr]

Thank you ALL for the very helpful information. I do love my CVA and although I have not yet shot it and had a chance to get it sighted In I do love that rifle over all of my centerfires and my little .32 simply because I made it. I love how Walks Alone said "I was a hunter first, second and last." because that's all I am. I love the history part of shooting a traditional gun, and making all the traditional accoutrements but I will always be a hunter and I will always make the most ethical shots with the most ethical rifle I can, and if that means that I only use 95 grains of powder as a hunting load in my .54 then that means that my longest shot on DEER sized game will be 75 yards and 50 yards as the farthest for elk. I am very interested to hear all your stories about people getting turned off by rifles not being up to par, and I believe that as long as I know that I worked hard to finish the task then I will be as happy about my rifle as any other item that I have made. I cannot thank all of you enough for your info,tips, (and a bit of arguing) because it gives me that much more pride that I finished something that others would have given up on and I finished something that others are proud of. Thank you all-YG

Thats all that matters, as long as your happy it don't mean a tinkers damn what anyone else thinks. :thumbsup:

 

[Walks Alone]

Walks Alone, what kind of gun did you use for re-enacting?

All of my muzzleloaders were bought for hunting, from the early 70's right up to the last one purchased a few years ago. But the secondary use of them for re-enacting was TC's starting in the 70's, then both TC's and CVA's until I stopped participating in mountainman/freetrappers groups a few years ago. The first group I ran with when I lived in the Shining Mountains was very strict about HC, but they did allow my 50 & 54 TC Hawken rifles. Closest I own to a HC muzzleloader is my CVA Siber pistol, other than caliber a fairly close copy of a high end target pistol in use starting 160 years ago.

 

[tg]

It is good that the 'vous circuit usually shoots enough slack to allow the production guns to play the game so people have a place to start, here in the west the mountain man thing is the biggest thing happening but there are more earlier based folks all the time which is also a good thing as long as all get along which seems to be the case from what I have seen.

 

[Sinner]

I had a CVA mountain rifle kit in .54 cal with "german silver" trim. It was a beautiful rifle when done and shot great with 110gr. fffg and a roundball(wish they were still available!). I don't remember the rot but think it was 1:60. Many people wanted it and I sold it when I left Kodiak in '86. Wish I never sold it. Would buy another in a New York second if I could find one. Why not? it was a great looking, reliable, good shooting rifle at a much lower cost than my friends lymans, etc. As far as historically correct, what does that mean, really. There are MANY variations of muzzleloaders. Does historically correct mean using their inferior metal barrels? because no one can convince me the barrels in the 1700's-1800's are as good as the barrels made today.
Any who, What really matters is if YOU enjoy it. Have fun shooting and shrug off any comments of disdain! :v

 

[BrownBear]

Thank you ALL for the very helpful information. I do love my CVA and although I have not yet shot it and had a chance to get it sighted In I do love that rifle over all of my centerfires and my little .32 simply because I made it. I love how Walks Alone said "I was a hunter first, second and last." because that's all I am. I love the history part of shooting a traditional gun, and making all the traditional accoutrements but I will always be a hunter and I will always make the most ethical shots with the most ethical rifle I can, and if that means that I only use 95 grains of powder as a hunting load in my .54 then that means that my longest shot on DEER sized game will be 75 yards and 50 yards as the farthest for elk. I am very interested to hear all your stories about people getting turned off by rifles not being up to par, and I believe that as long as I know that I worked hard to finish the task then I will be as happy about my rifle as any other item that I have made. I cannot thank all of you enough for your info,tips, (and a bit of arguing) because it gives me that much more pride that I finished something that others would have given up on and I finished something that others are proud of. Thank you all-YG

Hats off for a great attitude! :hatsoff:

You're mature far beyond your years, arriving there before many folks lots older than you.

You'll go far in this world, I'm betting!

 

[Sinner]

I wish I still had the mountain rifle I built from a kit while in Kodiak. I'd put it up against any other rifle for accuracy and reliability. It was beautifle too with a curly maple stock and german silver trim! I must have been blessed.

 

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Ever since the first firearm was assembled there has always been the element of individuals that are "Very Proud" of the expensive firearm they carry about. They will brag about the features, the fit and WHO assembled it. Some shoot very well.
Then there is the average hunter shooter who is happily content with the average mass produced firearm the has average fit and finish who realizes that his rifle will shoot just as well and all the eyewash in the world will not change that fact.
Toys do not make the man. If the end it is the moral fiber, the dedicated heart to Justice and Freedom that determines who we are. That is the kind of feller who will be there when he is needed no matter what rifle he carries about.
So who really cares what the boasting is about.. Hot air disipates right fast. All that really matters is a RB on the mark and food on the table just like those who founded our nation with thier blood and dedicated heart.
Mike in Peru

 

[YoungGunner]

Thank you BrownBear!

 

[Shine]

to bad cva only makes inlines now.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

My first muzzleloader was a CVA Kentucky pistol kit. Took my time, worked hard and it came out beautifully. My second was a TC Hawken kit. The stock had to be returned because it was miscut-mis drilled and misaligned. The barrel channel came out a 1/4 inch above the nose cap.

I put together other kits and had some major problems with an early CVA colonial pistol. There's no doubt that the very early CVA's had cheap poor quality locks. By the mid 1980's, they were darn good guns, for production stuff. But by the early 1990's they went down hill again. Perhaps due to cutting costs to try to compete with traditions. I think the CVA big bore mountain rifle was probably the best production gun ever made. With the Dixie Tenn Mountain rifle second.

I have custom guns which are great for their purpose. But when it comes to teaching newbies I have 2 CVA Frontier rifles that fill the bill just right.

 

[tg]

"etc. As far as historically correct, what does that mean, really. There are MANY variations of muzzleloaders. Does historically correct mean using their inferior metal barrels? because no one can convince me the barrels in the 1700's-1800's are as good as the barrels made today"

That is a lame attempt at trying to justify non PC/HC guns as being more authentic than they are, it is an issue of form and function not specific manufacture methods or substitution of modern metals,this defense only prooves the lack of knowledge and understanding of the original guns,it is best to say nothing and keep people wondering.

 

[ebiggs1]

Well good morning to you to,
My “entry level” gun as it is called is also my “end level” gun, as I no longer have a desire for a custom gun.
Mike in Peru stay well in Arequipa, Peru.
EBiggs

 

[MikeChapin]

No hate involved with CVA's on my part. The got a lot of people into the sport as a first gun. They did have cheap locks and some people had problems with them.

My first kit was a .50 percussion CVA Mountain Rifle. I restocked it a couple of years later because the factory stock didn't fit me well. The lock, triggers and barrel have had over thirty years of hard use and is still going strong. Over that time it has brought a lot of game and plunder from competition shooting. No complaints at all.

When my wife wanted a rifle, I built her a CVA Kentucky .45. She's a small woman so I bobbed the barrel by 6". She used that rifle successfully in competition for a couple of years until it died in a fire. No complaints there.

Recently I put together a pre-1975 CVA Kentucky for a friend of mine. He had it setting around for several years and got it from a friend, who got it from a friend.....He wanted to use it to learn how to shoot a flintlock. He has plenty of percussion rifles but no flinters.

I put it together for him and found a good load for it. The only things extra I did was put in a touch hole liner and stone the inside of the lock in a few places. The only gripe I have with the rifle is the same I have with almost all production rifle. The stock doesn't fit me at all. Aside from that the little rifle shoots well. It goes off every time and is fast. I didn't change the configuration of the lock but it is not a basher and is very easy on the flint. The inside of the barrel is very smooth without any of the rifling chatter marks that some of the barrels have. No gripes about this one at all.

I have had good luck with CVAs over the years. They aren't the best quality but you aren't paying for the best quality. They shoot as well and any rifle when they are handled properly.

 

[Zonie]

Those who have taken the time to do some research into it know that rifles very similar to the CVA, Traditions, TC and the Lyman deerstalker were made in the mid 1800's.
Many of the guns made in California in the 1850-1870 time period come to mind.

While the stock wood on many of these Spanish guns is unusual, the basic design is not.

The guns may not be representative of the area of the country where some folks do their reenacting or the time period they choose to recreate and perhaps using one of them to represent a time of 1830 in the East Coast regions is probably not "correct" that in itself does not make the gun "non PC/HC".

For the dyed in the wool reenactors, Period Correctness (PC) and Historically Correct (HC) is all there is to a guns acceptability. That's all that matters to them and that's fine as far as it goes but for them to force their opinion on those who just enjoy shooting muzzleloading rifles is a bit much in my opinion.

 

[tg]

Some similarity at best is what any gun historian will give you on the comparison of the 1850-70 ML halfstocks and the modern factory guns, some see single wedge in and get all fuzzy feely good 'cause now their import is PC/HC, yeah,let's be real, you can find enough differences to blow the imports out of the ballpark historicaly, which is not to say they are bad guns, I had fair luck with the many imports I have had.

 

[buzz]

i owned several and still own to early cap lock pistols what i found is they are only sort of period correct and 90% of my fustraiion comes L&R CVA replacement locks for both my flinter and the capper now they are ok and i enjoy taking them out for some smoke now and then but mine were made in the lated 70's

 

[bkovire]

i like my CVA. it is a fine shooter! the one draw back it has, is that it has the syn stock i would like to get a wood stock for it someday, but for now it is ok. it is light weight and no i have not stuffed the stock,i find it has little to no recoil i have had up to 65g of 2f this week i will try for the 80-90 just to see and give range report :thumbsup: bTW it is the bobcat 50 1:48 :hatsoff:

 

[jtmattison]

I don't like the drum bolster. Too prone to misfires. I much prefer Lyman and T/C with the snail bolster. I have NEVER had a misfire with them that I did not cause from my own oversight.

HD

 

[nkbj]

Kept a little percussion .50 CVA house gun around here for ten years. Never had a problem with it. Would have had more use for it smooth instead of rifled. But it worked well with ball and REAL's. Generally emptied it and loaded back up every week or two.
Have a six pound 50 flinter now. It needs to be smooth bore and about another foot of barrel.