cva kentucky long rifle ?

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

here is the deal , a friend has a CVA Kentucky long rifle kit gun he assembled many years ago , he is a good wood worker and it looks good he said it always shot good for him .

he took it to a dealer they said it was worth 125.00 or there about , so he offered it to me I was strapped for cash at the time , and was worried about it being a CVA and no parts available , and i wasn't thrilled about 45 , my other is a 50 and all of our 4h club guns are 50s

i recently spotted a traditions mainspring that a few of the reviewers said they used in a CVA with only slight modification

add to that my son got the muzzle loader bug when he shot mine

so i am thinking of asking him if he ever sold it , i don't think he did , and see if he will still take 125 , he was going to toss in all his accessories for it , caps , balls , patches and such

I know cva isn't very highly thought of , but whats is your experience with them

[FrankG]

As long as bore is good they shoot fine . The locks can stand a little cleaning up by honing and locktite on the sear engagement screw after getting it set proper.

[Lonegun1894]

I have 2 CVAs, a .32 Squirrel and a .50 St. Louis Hawken, and they both shoot great. The thing with CVAs is the locks. If you get a caplock, it will be relaible and will have few or no issues. If you get a flinter, you may get lucky or you may not. Aside from that, the cheap selling price and the "made in Spain" stamping makes a LOT of people wonder about the quality. The barrels, which is most important to accuracy, are well made. They weren't made near as good looking as many other brands, but they have won a lot of matches against rifles costing 2+ times as much. For example, my CVA "hawken" shoots almost as well as my Lyman GPR, giving me 4" groups at 100yds vs the GPRs 3", but I prefer the feel of the GPR and that the GPR is a flinter. And my TVM makes both the CVA and the Lyman look like beaters, but shoots like the GPR. I dont know if that helps any in your decision, but at $125, I'd buy it and give it to your son so he doesn't try to steal your rifle. Also, I wouldn't worry about it being "just" a .45. A Lee mold was going for just undr $20 at Midway last I looked, and at that price, it makes for cheap round balls that your son can cast himself to both make money and teach him about his gun and what to do/not do. In fact, I wouldn't mind one of those myself to use as a truck gun.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

thanks , it is a cap lock

i told the wife we needed to start allocating funds in that direction

I wasn't worried about it being just a 45 , but i was already set up for 50 , and i have been trying not to add new things to stock but like you say a round ball mold is only 20 dollars

[docone31]

I have one of those.
The lock can be replaced by one at Track of the Wolf. The rifle is worth it. The two piece stock, to me, is a little flimsy, but, definately not unsafe to fire! They are very accurate. I load mine with 70gns of fffg. The little rifle loads and fires well with Lee R.E.A.Ls.
I am restocking mine. It is my wife's rifle to begin with. She has a .54 Mountain rifle and that rifle.
One issue I had to fix was the hang-fire issue. When I got the rifle, it had a ball in the bore. Left there for 20 or more years. The powder was solid. After I pulled the ball, I sounded the bore and thought it was not then loaded. Well, when I fired a cap, it went off! The powder had turned into a solid lump in the breech.
Any rate.
Where the nipple and drum fit, the nipple goes too far into the drum. This impedes the flame front. Also, the clean out screw, which should be removed when cleaning, is too short. This allows the flame from the cap to go to the side of the drum along with the going to the powder charge. I replaced the clean out screw with a metric allen head pan screw. The pan head makes it a solid fit and easy to tighten. I switched to Ampco nipples on it. That also helped.
Second.
On the hammer, where the hammer hits the cap, there was on mine a little burr. That made light hits on the cap. I took a drill, flattened the tip and used it as an end mill in the cavity. The nipples will flare out also. This makes it hard to get the caps square on the nipple to fire.
If your bore is rusty, use some valve lapping compound as lube on a R.E.A.L casting. Cleans it out, shines it up, and does not seem to degrade the bore. I fired five for a complete clean out.
I also took a 9/16" brass carriage bolt, smeared fine valve compound on it, chucked it in a drill and polished the muzzle. The fiberglass ramrod does wear the rifleing as well as the muzzle.
A dab will do ya, and off you go!
The barrel is real thick so doing a dovetail is a snap. I changed out the sights, and dovetailed in barrel lugs. It is a good, slow twist, heavy barrel if nothing else. The drum holds in the breech plug, so nothing gets loose.
With round balls, it is a tack driver from 45gns to 100gns.
That is a nice little rifle with lots of potential.
Good solid barrel.
This is the replacement lock,
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/794/1/LOCK-LR-01-C
Her rifle is worth it to restock and do up proud.
It is based on the Southern Mountain school.

I forgot,
I have found, with this rifle, if you put a patch in the bore, under the R.E.A.L., it helps the groups. Make sure the R.E.A.L. is tight against the powder. I use the ball starter to "tap" the rod on the R.E.A.L loadings.
That really is a good rifle, once you get past the inexpensive parts. On the Mountain rifle, like my wife has, the barrel was a Douglas barrel.
Go figuire.

[FrankG]

If barrel has Made In USA it is a Douglas barrel . Otherwise is made in Spain. For a while CVA barrels were Douglas made.