Sow's Ear: Plains Rifle for my Son

[grabenkater]

First, I have never built a rifle but I have a strong interest in building one. Last spring, I was haunting the local pawn shop looking for old milsurp rifles. Nestled in a corner was several muzzleloading rifles. I picked out a CVA that had been assembled but never fired. I figured reworking this would give me a decent idea on building. I remvoed a large amount of wood with several rasps and a small hand plane, reshaped the wrist and done my best with the lock panels. Reshaped the trigger guard, inlet the wedge estcheons, removed all modern markings, browned the barrel, inlayed a silver hunters star, refinished the stock with fake Lehman style curl and poured a pewter nose cap. I know what it is but I am very pleased with my first efforts. My seven year old has claimed it and he is ecstatic.

[moleeyes36]

A good project to start out with and it looks much better than a stock CVA.  The artificial curl came out well.  I'm sure your seven year old son and you will have many enjoyable hours together shooting it.

Mole Eyes

[L. Akers]

Nice job! Looks more like a silk purse FROM a sow's ear.

[oldtravler61]

Very well done an a interested young man taboot. Congrats !

[SBachner]

Would you please post the barrel length?

Cheers,
SteveB.

[bama]

Many of us started with CVA kits many years ago, nothing wrong with that.

The first rifle my Dad built close to 50 years ago was the CVA long rifle kit that had the two piece stock. It was a plain jane but it killed deer. At the time I thought this was the greatest rifle ever made, it stayed in the family for many years but unfortunately it was stolen in a home robbery. If I could get get it back it would be the most valued rifle in my collection.

[grabenkater]

Would you please post the barrel length?

Cheers,
SteveB.

28"

Thanks everyone for the compliments. My inletting leaves something to be desired but its all in the learning. This beechwood is really tough. I guess I will hit the pawnshops for another for my other son and to hone my inletting skills.

[SBachner]

Thanks.

[stuart cee dub]

 You did a great job.I like the tasteful tacking job too.

That's a good rifle for a kid.It's short enough so they can load it.
We start kids off on cross sticks at my shooting club .Once they get settled behind the rifle an adult caps it for them .Kids are always welcome at the club as ''Dad has the caps".

Nice thing about muzzleloaders is that they are can be great teaching guns.The
pace is slower so you have time to discuss at each stage what is going on.
Also you can have more eye contact with the student which helps a lot.

Semiauto .22 's while popular with kids seldom encourages good fundamentals
and the self loading aspect can get away from them like chamber condition.

[Hemo]

Nice refurbishing job and a nice final result! A good way to learn about fundamentals when starting out. The fake striping is very believable! Your son has a right to be very happy with it.
My first muzzleloader was a CVA flint pistol I put together on the kitchen table about 44 years ago. Although the bore was rough as a cob and the bridle-less Spanish flint lock was a sporadic sparker at best, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I kept going and never looked back!
Good luck with your next project!

Gregg