CVA OPTIMA users

cwillard · 10-29-2006, 01:59 PM

Hey everyone. Two years ago I got a CVA Optima. I zeroed it a little high at 50 yards, shooting 100 grains of powderdex pellets and a 245 gr. powerbelt bullet. It was groupingpretty good. This year I decided I wanted to zero it at 100 yards. I shot it and can not get it to group good at all. Then I decided maybe I should move up to 150 gr. of pellets. It still didn't group good. Any advice would be much appreciated (I AM SIGHTING A SCOPE)

cayugad · 10-29-2006, 02:14 PM

It seems strange that prior, it grouped fine and now it suddenly will not group at all. I think the 150 grains is too much powder for the powerbelt. I never could get any accuracy out of them past 100 grains.

I am guessing you were shooting good groups at 100 yards in the past. So check your scope mounts first. Make sure you are shooting on a clean barrel. And have someone else shoot the rifle and see what their results are.

cwillard · 10-29-2006, 02:18 PM

I was shooting groups at 50 yards before and I decided to buy a new scope after I couldn't get the other to zero at 100yds. Everything is tight. Some one told me that they had a similar problem and I may need to move to a 348gr bullet. They said they couldn't get the powerbelt bullets to group.

cwillard · 10-29-2006, 02:19 PM

O and I got my father to shoot also and still the same result.

liquidorange · 10-29-2006, 04:43 PM

shot my brothers optima last week. he used 100 grains of loose pyro and 44 cal. 300 grain honady xtp bullets in the green sabots. great groups and even skipped cleaning to every other shot.

Triple Se7en · 10-29-2006, 07:12 PM

348 regularPowerbelt/338 Platinum Powerbeltor 300 grain XTP/Shockwave.... as stated above!

If sabot loading becomes difficult, switch to Harvester plastic sabots.

frontier gander · 10-29-2006, 09:56 PM

I would have responded on your other thread but its locked. But anyways the powerbelt bullets being over priced and no good is not true at all. Over priced, yes. Ive tried other bullets over the years and i keep spending the $14 on the powerbelts. I got this off RW's website this is what he says about the powerbelts: Unfortunately the better selling, lighter Powerbelts (245 and 295 grain) are the worst performers on game.

I disagree, for the first 2 years i was using the 245 and 295 grain powerbelts in my winchester with 150 grains pyrodex rs loose powder with a 295 PB and the next year i used 120 grains pyrodex rs loose with the 245 grain hollow point on mule deer. both shots were in the mid 140's yard range and each one of those deerdropped in their tracks. My dad uses them in his cabelas hawken and loves them, hes shot 2 deer and each one ran maybe 15-20 yards and dropped. I love them. I'll be trying some of the 223 grain PB's in my flintlock this winter and see how they do in that slow twist barrel.

You just have to find what load works best for you, maybe your rifle doesnt like one powder, so now you just move on to the next untill you find what works best. I believe you should drop your rifle into the 120 grain powder charge range and try it. I shot good groups with my winchester with 150 grains but it was a waste of powder shooting that much loose powder. If you are shooting pellets, i'd try some loose powder and then try those powerbelts.

bgcorn · 10-29-2006, 10:26 PM

I use 2 50grain 777 pellets and 295grain powerbelt hollow points get a good group at 100 yds.

cwillard · 10-29-2006, 10:30 PM

Yeah I posted it in the deer hunting forum then found the black powder forum and then they moved it and locked one. My bad.

Triple Se7en · 10-29-2006, 11:29 PM

I dont think anyone is stating it's impossible to get good groups using the 245 or 295 Powerbelts. What reviewers like chuckhawks.comare trying to demonstrate is thelack of consistent accuracy using the lighter bullets in a majority of CVAs like yours.

I think the important message here is that it's easier to get good groups using the heavier ones. The reason the 405 Powerbelts were not included (even though they fared real well at the range) is because CVA/BPI does not allow any conical over 400 grains with 100+ grain loads. Otherwise, the 405s would be included in the same group as the 348s.

There was a time when cva.com allowed the use of the 405 gr. Powerbelts with a maximum load of 85gr. blackpowder equivalent. Im not sure what CVA/BPI's stance is on this today. You can email them at...
info@cva.com....... for their latest verdict and/or powder volume suggestion using the 405's.