CVA is an importer. They import their firearms. And they import them at different standards. Through the last 30 or 40 years CVA has been the low end of MZ's. As far as price and quality. Some shoot, some don't. I remember one St.Louis Hawken replica they made that had a square back sight and a round front sight?? They did different things like this that made no sense at all. Probably did it because they had a buch of those sights just laying around or bought on closeout(I was told the latter by a rep.). I steer clear of CVA products because I have seen a lot of bad CVA's over the years. And once I get a bad taste in my mouth then I avoid a mfr. all together. But I will admit that I have seen a lot of guys who like theirs, but it is just not for me.

Now to address your question about blowing barrels. The CVA barrels are made in Spain. They pressure test the barrels in a different manner than what we do in America. And when tested to American standards some of their barrels were found to be "soft". This is what got the whole ball started. On weak barrels. And again, once shooters got that bad taste, they would not go back. The barrels are made by Bergera in Spain. They make barrels to specs. I will leave the decision up to you. But do you think a $40 barrel is going to be made to the same spec. as a Thompson or Green Mountain barrel?? You decide. Tom.