CVA .45 Mountain Rifle questions

[Hungry Horse]

I literally wore a. .50 mountain rifle out, in about five years of heavy shooting. The lock was a perpetual problem. The parts vary in degrees of hardness from soft as butter, to hard as glass. Mine was a percussion, and I had trouble with the drum, the mainspring, and eventually the barrel just didn't have enough rifleing left to allow it to stabilize the ball anymore. I would not waste a lot of time and money on one of these guns. You will be perpetually working on it if you shoot it much.

 Hungry Horse

[Eric Krewson]

I agree with Mike as well, $175 for an L&R replacement is too much of an investment for a CVA gun unless you think this will be your go to gun forever.

Another thing; I am putting an L&R replacement lock in a TC Renegade. I am an experienced builder and have found this is a very challenging task. Here is what I have found so far on the switch;

1. The lock doesn't fit the existing mortis, not even close, it is undersized and will need a bunch of wood glued in to fill up the gaps.
2. you have to remove a bunch of wood for the lock internals, so much there is not a lot of wood left for strength in the breech area.
3. The existing lock bolt hole through the stock is way off and won't align with hole on the lock.
4.  the touch hole is way off from being centered on the lock pan, the barrel has to be moved a lot.
5. The inletted lock hits on the barrel tang, so the tang has to be ground off on one side to accommodate the lock.

My point is, do you want to go to this much trouble on a CVA rifle?

[Smoketown]

Also to add..

When I looked at the tumbler the half cock notch looked really deep.  Maybe deeper than it really needs to be.  Maybe I could weld it and file it to a better depth...  but then the heat treat question comes up again..

Heavies,

Using soft-solder (or a really good two part epoxy), attach a wedge, shim or slug into the half cock notch to (slightly) reduce the depth of engagement and shoot the heck out of it until you learn the ropes ... While saving for or building the gun of your dreams.

Cheers,
Smoketown

PS
Although soldering would be better, unless the hammer slips, there should be no 'real load' on the half cock notch so epoxy should work.
I suppose you could also drill and tap for a set-screw if you're so inclined.   

[Hungry Horse]

 I wouldn't mess around with the half cock notch, since that is essentially your safety if you choose to carry the gun loaded. I would adjust the angle of the cock, and look for a cheap Spanish pistol lock that was used on many cheap kit guns a few years ago. The top jaw on these locks are shorter, and wider, which allows for a little better geometry if you add in a slight bend to the cock. These cheap locks are easily recognizable by the odd finial on the forward end of the frizzen, and some very convincing cast in engraving on the top jaw.

  Hungry Horse

[Scota4570]

Make a sear with a longer nose.....done.

[Heavies]

Super ideas.  Thank you.  Looking at it just now it seems either lengthening the sear or filling the half cock notch maybe .030 or .040 would give clearance for the small flint.  Maybe I'll search around for the proper sear and either weld up and file down the old or maybe an other will be of proper length. Having an extra just in case would be prudent.

For now just going to shoot it as is.  Not taking this hunting, right now anyway, so being careful, should be alright.

[Scota4570]

The easiest way is to silver solder a piece of tool steel to the existing sear.  Filing on the notches will take you in the wrong direction and probably ruin the tumbler.

[Leatherbark]

Remove your lead wrap from the flint and place it in sideways so the flint can be mounted farther back. Or by shorter flints.  You will not be satisfied with a Siler gunsmiths lock because most likely the relationship between the location of the pan and the sear will have the wrong dimensions. When using a Siler gunsmiths lock kit the first thing is to make sure the pan can line up where it is centered with the touchhole and the sear arm is in the same location as the original. I'd just make do with the lock you have.

Bob

[OldMtnMan]

He mentioned twice that the cock hits the frizzen with no flint in it. Nothing he can do with the flint is going to help.

[hanshi]

That cock is way too close to the frizzen for any flint finagling to fix.  The cock needs to be bent back or straightened a bit in order to clear the frizzen at half cock.  I'm not at all familiar with those locks but would wonder if the screw holding the cock to the lock plate could possibly be removed and then reinserted with the cock positioned farther back.

[Hungry Horse]

The cock on this lock mounts on a square boss, and cannot be rotated by just removing the hammer screw. Probably the best way to get this thing fixed without messing up the internal parts, is to weld up the square hole in the hammer, and reorient the square hole to give you more throw, and more room at half cock. IMO welding and or soldering on the internals is asking for trouble. And if you do screw it up, I guarantee it will be a lot easier to find another cock than it will be the internals. I've own many CVA guns with this lock and have extra external parts, but no internal parts, there's a message there.

  Hungry Horse

[Dave R]

Heavies,
For CVA parts you might try
Deer Creek Products, New Legacy Sales.
6989 E Michigan Rd
Waldron , IN 46182
765-525-6181
I think Deer Creek is the company that purchased all the remaining CVA parts from the first CVA company.
They also have a website.

[hudson]

I have had a CVA mountain rifle which I built from a kit in the early years, been an accurate rifle with over 4,000 rounds. The rifle has won its share at Friendship, and now held as a backup. This I will add, inner lock and trigger parts are hard and need some help. I have replaced the sear twice, trigger once, and main sprang once. Thinking should throw parts in the furnace, would half to check for temperature.

[Leatherbark]

Well Darn.  Cocks from other locks  have the square cut out for the tumbler at a different location.  Maybe the hammer was changed out at one time with a hammer that originally went on another lock.  It would be neat if you could try a cock from another CVA lock.

Bob

[Heavies]

Thanks for all the great replies and ideas.

Went out to the range on Sunday to play with some loads. From 45 grains to 65 grains in 5 grain increments.  Goex 3F, .440 hornady ball, .018" precut and lubed Ox yoke patch. 

Best group of the day was 50 grains. 10 ring is about 1", used a six o'clock hold at 50 yards.  Shot off the bench.  I hate shooting from the bench...



Waiting on some .445 ball to come in.  Plan on trying that. Maybe some thicker patch and experiment with different lubes.

[T*O*F]

All of these CVA, Traditions, and other lower priced import rifles have the same problem.  You just learn to adapt to their shortcomings and live with them. In many cases, replacing the lock with an RPL would exceed the original price of the rifle when new.  I did have a couple of friends who had theirs restocked and upgraded the lock in the process.