The CVA Staghorn Magnum is a discontinued model being replaced by the Buckhorn 209 Magnum. Although it is an entry level rifle, no one ever told it that. My .50 caliber Staghorn is a great shooting rifle.

The simple safety and striker ignition makes the simplicity of the rifle one of its most powerful selling points. There is very little that can go wrong with the rifle. The safety is simple, move the slider striker lever up into the lock position, locking the slide striker, and there is no way the rifle can fire. Side it down and the rifle is ready to fire.

The fiber optic sights on the rifle although inexpensive are actually easy to see and focus. The adjustments on the sights could be better, but for the price they work fine.

With the 24" 1-28 twist barrel, the rifle is able to shoot a number of different projectile and do it very well. I would not get too excited about shooting 150 grains of powder. When you read the manual it will explain that is with pellets only and the recommended loose powder loads should not exceed 100 grains. Still 100 grains of powder is plenty of power for anything you want to shoot.

My rifle shoots powerbelts in 295 & 348 grain range very accurately with 90 grains of loose powder. It will also shoot 320 grain REAL conicals with 80 grains of powder extremely accurate. When shooting sabots, it seems to like the 250 & 300 grain range with a black harvester high pressure sabot. There are some concials that are not supposed to be used with this rifle. Also some of them I have tried are hard to load. You have to be a little selective with the brand of sabot you buy for this rifle. Harvesters or Thompson Center Mag Express work best. MMP and Knights load hard!

With the open sights and a bench rest, I have shot 3.5 inch three shot groups with the rifle shooting sabots at 100 yards. My best five shot group with the open sights was 4 inches which is still acceptable for hunting. I think the rifle can do better but my old eyes have other opinions. 80-90 grains of powder seem to be the magic range for the rifle. I am sure if this rifle were scoped (which it is tapped for already) I could shoot some real impressive groups.

The rifle and stock are held together by one locking lug. It seems to do a great job at holding the compostite stock and barrel together. The rifle is easy to clean because all the parts can be removed with an allen wrench and then it is like cleaning a pipe once the breech plug is removed.

The trigger pull on my rifle is crisp and clean with very little creep. I have never tested it to see how many pounds it breaks at, but it is actually a good clean breaking trigger.

Over all the rifle might be an entry level but this is a serious hunting rifle. It is well balanced, not real heavy, and shoulders fast and true. I own more expensive rifles and they are great too, but this Staghorn I am sure would hold it own among them shot for shot.

CVA also has an excellent customer service to answer all your questions and take care of any problems you might encounter. My rifle shoots the 209 primers, musket caps and #11 caps. I personally use the musket caps to fire this.

Some posters claimed they had trouble getting the .45 calibers to shoot good. Meaning finding a good load. I have no information on this. You did not mention the caliber. There were some .45 calibers listed just a few weeks ago for the .45 caliber.

For $79.00 if you want a quality rifle for hunting, without breaking the bank, this is a good deal. I have seen them listed in other places for $89.00 which is what I paid for mine with the nickel barrel. They were listed on MidwayUSA for that and then it turned out the rifle offered was the Eclipse which is said to be the next step above them.