Most Accurate Out Of The Box:

My cheap old CVA StagHorn. It made consistent <1.25" three shot groups at 100 yards. It still does that after ten years of heavy use and abuse.


The Worst:

My .50 Encore. The stock was loose when i bought it. The screw holes for the thimbles were not drilled deep enough and the thimbles were always loose. Fixed that one myself. The bore was very rough and the barrel fouled with plastic from the sabots. A couple of sessions with tight patches and red jewelers rouge cured that.

Had problems with side play and lockup. That was partially corrected with new lockup springs and an oversize hinge pin. Had oodles of problems related to center fire rifle barrels. The forearm ears were touching the frame and had to be shaved on the inside. The thing did not come with an Easy Tip extractor and i had to buy one of those.

The Best:

My .50 Encore. After doing the obligitory Encore retrofits it became a pretty good gun. Had a couple of cheap scopes on that gun that i thought were good in low light, etc. Both went bad. This past fall i put a Zeiss 4X32 Conquest scope on it and that made a huge difference. My groups got smaller. The scope is much clearer and i can see targets better in low light. My only gripe about my Encore now is the fact that it is very heavy. Too heavy for me to take on a long walking hunt. For that there is my trusty CVA Stag Horn.