Got my new ball shooter today

[frontier gander]

Bought a CVA Mountain Rifle off a member here and she arrived today. After spending some time checking it out and file fitting the wedge keys to the wedge plates "They were hitting the insides" made sure all else was in order I loaded up 80gr 2f Goex, .490" ball and mink oil lubed .020" patches. At 50 yards off hand I had 2 out of 3 shots touching! Shes shooting high and slightly to the left but that will get taken care of very soon. Group was aprox 3" with that pulled shot but heck, I am happy, I've only had it about 3 1/2 hours since I cleaned the bore and found it to be perfect inside. That 1:66 twist really does a good job with these balls.

This one has the lighter weight 15/16" barrel width and feels a ton lighter than the other MR's Ive shot that had the 1" barrel.

Not sure what I'll do just yet with the stock/barrel, I didn't plan on refinishing it so soon but we'll give it a week before I decide.

[bob in the woods]

  Nice rifle .  Some 27 years ago, when a lot of folks here were really into the TC "Hawkens " rifles, there was one fellow at our club that had one of those mountain rifles in 50 cal.  I always thought his rifle was nicer than the TC's and it shot real well too.
I thought about getting one, but moved in the direction of flintlock longrifles instead.  Haven't regretted the shift in direction 

[necchi]

Why not leave it as is?
Might be nice to someday have one as original.
They don't say the MR was the best Trad rifle built by CVA for no reason.
Does everything have to get "improved"?

[frontier gander]

First 3 shots fired at 50 yards OFF HAND/Standing! I didn't expect this at all since its been a long time since I've done any shooting off hand. Load was 80gr Goex 2f, .490" ball and .020" mink oil lubed patch.



Next  5 shots are off my sand bag at 50 yards, first 3 were awesome! I drifted the rear sight over to the left and will leave it right there for now until I print out smaller targets for precision. The LOW shot was super tough to seat due to the fouling build up, I discount that one due to the bore condition.

[frontier gander]

Why not leave it as is?
Might be nice to someday have one as original.
They don't say the MR was the best Trad rifle built by CVA for no reason.
Does everything have to get "improved"?

Its an old kit gun that needs some lumps smoothed out here and there. Plus I make them look better.

[moleeyes36]

Its an old kit gun that needs some lumps smoothed out here and there. Plus I make them look better.

CVA sold a lot of their Mountain Rifles as kit guns in the 70's.  I probably assembled at least a half dozen of those kits and even more TC kits for people that didn't want to build them themselves.  It turned enough spare cash to keep me in powder and ball back then. 

Mole Eyes 

[necchi]

Yeah, I guess I take that back, that one is already buggerd,
That's an odd ball TG.

[Candle Snuffer]

I had the .45 & .50 cal CVA Mountain Rifles and really liked them both.  I sold the .45 and kept the .50...  I enjoyed these rifles and eventually I'd say they are what led me to building my own.  Not because of any poor performance from either of these, I just wanted to build to fit my shooting needs of the time.  They were good rifles at a reasonable price.

[stuart cee dub]

My inherited mountain rifle ,built from a kit late 70's maybe early 80's has the same trigger guard.
There were some variations in the guns.
A lot of shooters started off building one of these first . Not all were kits either some were factory finished.
While many are good shooters the Spanish lock just isn't up to the quality of the rest of the gun.

I thought your gun looked pretty good Frontier , the color is nice many were too brown .And your lock must work too . Mine was bubba'd so I put in an RPL.

[TinStar]

I had one of these in a .50 cal. kit and it was a real tack driver. Killed quite a few deer with it too.

TinStar
Soli Deo Gloria!

[sloe bear]

 I had the same thoughts it can be a fine rifle ,if the lock was better, I remember on one deer hunt when a friends son had a CVA in our camp it was common to fire a fouling shot before going on the mountain, and would you know his rifle would not fire the hammer didn't hit the cap hard enough to fire it, we rigged up a elastic band around the hammer to get enough "spring" to set it off. after  clearing the piece I let him use my second back up rifle for the day.he had to replace the main spring and polish the lock to get it back in service. needless to say he sold that rifle and found a rifle that had a much better lock." buy cheap get cheap"

[frontier gander]

I always hear how bad these cva locks are yet I've never run into trouble with them. I had one that if you screwed in the lock screws to tight, the screw would extend past and freeze up the hammer but thats about it. I've even had a flinter version which sparked excellent and shot awesome. Just one of those hit and miss things I guess.

[Daryl]

Looking good, there Gander - however if there is fouling buildup, ANY buildup - the bore is either pitted, or your combination is too small in diameter - thus - thicker patch or larger ball is required - that is, if you want it to shoot as well as it's capable of being shot.
I've never seen a .50 that didn't prefer a .495" ball - with a .020" to .0235" patch as well. Of course, it's your call.

[necchi]

I always hear how bad these cva locks are yet I've never run into trouble with them.

Yeah I kinda get tired of hearing folks doggin that lock too.
Is it a top line lock? No.
But the Bridled Spanish Cap lock works fine if it's cared for and installed like any lock should be.
The spanish flint lock frizzens are $#@*!

[frontier gander]

well I got the barrel finished up tonight. I wanted to try to replicate a finish on an old winchester .22 I have and dang if i actually did it! The winchester is so old that the bluing has turned a dark brownish blue color. I used birchwood casey plum brown after polishing the barrel flats and then washed it down, dried it and used a scotch bright pad and lightly buffed it down, taking some normal wear areas down to almost bare metal, cleaned it and then followed up with Perma blue gun paste. It gave it that antique look of an old blued barrel, turning brown over time. I really do like the way it turned out though. I did have a DOH! moment though when I put everything back together and saw that I forgot about the rear sight    I can finish that up in the morning.  It looks real good though, in the light you can see the black where it really took to the almost bare steel "wear" areas I made, but then a deep rich brown color. It blends together real well.

[stuart cee dub]

Friend Necchi, you and my pal mr Burman seemed to have much better luck than I had with the lock.
The rest of the gun was pretty good all in all.

Sometimes you'll see a really nice piece of wood.
Mr Burman came to the monthly shoot at the cannon valley muzzleloaders just today with a new to him CVA mountain rifle .The lock worked fine ,the set triggers will need adjustment,but the stock  was an over the top piece of Birdseye maple.It was an older made in the USA model.

He's a gunbroker regular.
When he told us what he paid I was a bit surprised,but there really is a market for the CVA mountain rifles.

Before the inline side locks ruled and places like Sears sold kits .People had hobbies then before they got
cell phones and iPads .

[frontier gander]

they are not getting cheaper thats for darn sure.

[Hefner]

My first ML was also a 50 cal. Mountain Rifle kit.  I won much more in prizes than the kit cost me.  I think I bought the kit at a Thrifty's Drug Store in Tempe, AZ. back in the late 70's.
The only trouble I had with the rifle was with the drum leaking gases past the threads!  I tried brazing the drum to the barrel (which worked for awhile), but I had to remove most of the braze to get the lock back into the correct position.  I eventually sent the barrel back to CVA and they sent me a new barrel.  I turned around and traded it and $100 for a new Lyman GPR rifle.

[frontier gander]

[Scout]

Glad you are enjoying it !