Bought Me a CVA Hawken

[grullaguy]

I have been lurking around Canadian gun rooms looking for a BP rifle to come up at the right price. Missed out on a lot of deals because I was hesitant and had people buy the deals while I was still asking the seller questions.

I have wanted a smoke pole for 30 or so years, but just had it on my 'someday" list.
Last night I paid, sight unseen, $175 for a CVA .50 Hawken. The price includes the shipping. Now to see what I bought.....

It is supposed to be in good shape, but only time will tell.
And now a new learning curve begins.

[docone31]

I have 2 CVAs. All of them are hard on firing.
What I found,
The flame channel through the drum has "feathers" in the threads. I replaced the clean out screw with an allen head screw. This I bring close to the nipple.
My thoughts on this,
Bringing the clean out screw closer to the nipple in the drum, forced the flame to go into the barrel, rather than spread out. I also got either Hot Shot nipples, or Ampco Bronze nipples. With the Ampco nipples, I then took a ball burr and opened the exit hole slightly.
This with CCI Magnum Caps, and I have had few misfires. My Cabelas Hawken, I get none, unless I load without powder. Like Duh....
CVA makes a good quality smokepole. My Mountain rifle is great, once I played with the nipple.
Make a small mark on the ramrod, where it hits bottom. Trust me, this will come in handy. As you get used to it, you will not need it. First dry ball, you will go, I see!
For the dry ball, unscrew the nipple, pour in some poweder, screw in the nipple, recap and fire! Most times, it gets the job done.
I use 70gns of Pyrodex RS, for both my .54, and .50. With R.E.A.L.s I use less.
Depending on what sight you get with it, it will either work, or you will not be able to see through it. If it has the long sight with a screw almost under the rear blade, You can take a triangular file, and open up the notch without makeing it deeper. A little dab will do ya. If that doesn't work, Track of the Wolf has good sights for the Hawken. You might have to make a dovetail, but that is no biggee. Just measure, and go slow. Make sure you have a safe edge.
They are great rifles, have a learning curve, but that makes it fun. The CVA is very accurate. Play around with patch thickness. I use pillow ticking from Walmart. Works great. Cast round Ball, that patch, and my homemade lube, and I have a working load.
Good luck, my smoke poles are as accurate as my rifles with iron sights. MY eyes are the limiting factor.
They are good rifles, and you can get goodies for them. The Hawken shop makes an iron kit for the rifles on their site. It looks great with iron furniture.
Good luck, and great find.

[grullaguy]

Thank you for all the information. When I got serious about buying a black powder gun, I went and introduced myself at a black powder shoot which my club was having.
I brought a J Miller .50 plains rifle which has a Joseph Golcher lock. They though that with some work, I could that rifle to fire as well. As it has been in the family probably since it was first puchased, I think that it would be great to bring a part of history back to life.

[mooman76]

I have several CVA rifles myself. They aren't near top of the line but that doesn't mean they are not good guns. Mine all shoot well. It's a great sport and allot of fun. Hope yours turns out to be good. Unless totally abused most things can be fixed fairly easy. Good luck.

[roverboy]

Some of the CVA Hawkens shoot pretty good. A friend of mine had one that would shoot a 3 shot group at 100 yards with 90 gr. 2f black and a 350 gr. Maxi-Hunter into about 3 1/2". You should have a good rifle there.

[grullaguy]

I had my rifle at the club's black powder shoot today. I am still waiting for my cleaning and shooting supplies to arrive from Track of the Wolf, so no shooting today.

Everyone felt I got a great deal, a few kisses on the wood over the years from rough handling or banging around in a gun safe. Besides that negligible damage, no one at the club could find any indication that the rifle was ever fired.

I am a very happy camper.

[richhodg66]

I own and have hunted for several years now, an Italian imported Hawken that Cabela's calls The Cabela's Hawken now (mine was before they started selling them so a different name).

I've killed more deer with it than any other single weapon I own. I got it because Kansas has a good muzzle loader season and back then, it seemed that season was interfered less than the regular season and Kansas didn't allow scopes or inlines then.

The Hotshot nipples are a good idea, and I use them too, but learning how to load it goes a long way towards no misfires. It always seems to rain the first few days of our season, so I make sure it is absolutely dry and no oil inside, bust six or eight caps on it empty to make sure the channel is clear and dry then load it inside to keep things dry. When you pour the powder in, turn the rifle kind of sideways and tap on that drum a few times to make sure the powder gets inside the drum. SInce I use Bore Butter for lube, which is soft and it's sometimes warm in September here, I usually put a small piec of Saran wrap under the bullet before I ram it to keep a barrier between that lube and the powder. CVA used to sell (haven't had to buy any for years so not sure if they still do) little pieces of neopreme tubing cut to about eighth inch lengths that fit snugky over the percussion caps to keep them on the nipple and seal out dampness somewhat. If it looks like rain, I'll wrap a length of Saran wrap around the lock under the hammer and secure it with rubber bands. That has never caused the rifle to not fire and will help keep things dry. I learned most of this from a chapter in my Hogdon loading manual on the subject.

The initial learning curve was steep, but since I learned to do it, I have hunted with it in some real wet conditions and haven't had a misfire in a long time. Hunting with a traditional muzzle loader is very gratifying.

[mooman76]

Aquarium tubing cut into small pieces will work to cover over the nipple. Also works when cleaning for those guns that don't have the easy removable barrels.

[frontier gander]

250gr Powerbelt Aerolite, 80gr Pyrodex RS is an awesome shooting load in our CVA Hawken.