cva 12 ga. double barrel , rear trigger lock not working

[mosby's men]

i bought this from a guy who knows nothing of the history of the shotgun .
the front trigger and lock work fine .
the rear trigger will not trip the hammer at all in the gun .
if i take the lock out of the gun and take the lock to full cock and try pushing on the sear nothing happens
but if i put slight pressure pushing down on the hammer and push on the sear it will trip .
i have tried adjusting the sear adjustment screw both ways i cant get it to trip with out slight pushing down on the hammer .
tia

[Col4570]

Sometimes if the Tumbler metal is a bit soft metal can be swept over the tumbler notch by the sear making it difficult to pull the trigger.Check this out before you proceed to more drastic measures.Remove the Burr and try the trigger pull again.Sometimes the notch has been recut at the wrong angle.

[bedbugbilly]

+1 ^ ^ ^ - good advice.

Not knowing the history or amount of use it has had it's hard to tell.

Other things to check out besides the tumbler notch . . . .

It's been a long time since I've worked on one and I can't remember if the tumbler has a pilot pin that goes through the bridle. If it does, check to see if it or the hole in the bridle is worn and out of round, etc.

Pull your hammer and check the portion of the tumbler that extends through the lock plate - and the hole in the lock pate - and see if there is excessive wear at all. If there is, this can sometimes allow the tumbler to reposition so that the tumbler notch and the sear are not aligned properly.

Next . . check the sear screw and the sear screw hole in the sear to see if there is excessive wear.

All of the above are "not intrusive" and can be easily checked.

If those things look O.K. . . . then it is most likely the relation of the sear to the sear notch and could be causing a problem in either the full cock notch or even in the safety notch.

Check as Col4570 suggests. The full cock notch may either be worn or more likely, someone may have attempted to "make improvements' . . . i.e. filed and or stoned the notch to make a lighter trigger pull and they do not have the geometry correct to assure a proper correlation to the sear and the sear notch.

At the same time . . . check your triggers for wear. Is the rear trigger moving correctly with no outlandish side play? Also check to make sure that when the trigger is pulled, it rotates high enough into the sear hole in the stock to trip the sear. Does it appear that anyone may have tampered with it by filing it down? Does the sear extend into the sear hole and over the trigger enough so that the trigger hits it when pulled when the lock is seated and securely screwed into the lock mortise? Odd questions I know but check out all the possibilities since not much is know about the previous ownership/use of the shotgun.


I would guess that someone has fussed with the sear/tumbler at some point as if your right lock (front trigger) is functioning fine . . . the odds are that it is not a wear problem. Unless someone was using it to shoot doubles all the time, most double barrels that I have owned over the years - both front stuffers and those that take shells - the front trigger/right barrel got way more use than the left especially when used for hunting.

[Toymaker]

Also check the sear for a chip off the face. That happened to me.

[54bore]

I read an article awhile back about some of the old cva shotguns being dangerous? Some kind of metal problems? I cant remember the details? I will see if i can find it again and post it.

[54bore]

If anyone is interested you can check out cvaguncases.com, and just do a google search 'the truth about cva muzzleloaders, that will give you PLENTY to read

[mosby's men]

cvaguncases is about in line muzzle loaders

[daleraby]

I've encountered similar problems with other CVA doubles. They seem to have been cheap guns with correspondingly cheap locks. The old sprichtword used to be "There is T/C and then there is everyone else". CVA was one of those in the "everyone else" catgegory. About that time the inlines started to get popular and suddenly the market was flooded with entry-level guns with plastic stocks, plastic ramrods and lockwork that was pretty sub-standard. They mostly worked, though. T/C, unfortunately, never made a double. Wish they had.

[mosby's men]

the stock on this one is beautiful and the barrels seem to be in really good shape.

[fixit]

I have two it these, and have had some dealings with the sears. It turns out there was a suprising amt. of variation with the sears and some of them had incomplete engagement, I don't know if there were variations that would have caused excessive engagement but it's possible, I suppose. Too strong of a sear spring though unlikely is possible. If you need parts for these, I believe deer creek in Waldron Indiana will have them. It's my understanding that they bought all of CVAs stock when CVA got out of traditional muzzleloaders.

[mosby's men]

thank you i will check them out

[mosby's men]

i tried deer creek , they had nothing listed for shotguns and have not yet replied to emails