Okay Cactus, theres nothing wrong with buying a CVA I personally like the feel of the Sidekick over ANY CVA when you pick up the sidekick it just has a good balance and a good solid gun(Walnut stock). I have looked at alot of muzzleloaders at Bass Pro and ended uptaking homethe NEF Sidekick with a 3x9 Bushnell to put on it .

The turn off about that NEF.... Those plastic primer holders it requires. I have not found them at any of my local sporting good stores. As for the NEF kicking any CVA's ass. I think thats going a little to far . Or should i say, a tad bit over confident? Ive held the nef before at a gun shop and it was like my ex girl friend, A little top heavy. CVA's better ramrods will kick the asses of NEF's. As for the nef being the most comfortable rifle you ever held, Try picking up one of those winchester x-150's next time you see one. You'd love it! The palm swell is amazing and the checkering actually helps you grip it. I've never held a modern firearm that felt that comfortable. But lets not try to turn this Guys thread into a pissing match allright? Theres been way to much of that.

Oh come one, frontier gander, I wanna piss

I bought the CVA Buckhorn a year ago. I'd owned a CVA Staghorn 'magnum' for several years; it shot well, accurate, and I like it. Killed deer with it. Unfortunately when it was new and I was new to muzzleloading, I let it go a few days without properly cleaning, and it rusted. I cleaned that up and shot it another two years - worked fine, but never looked as good. Then right after 2005 season the local wallymart had the Buckhorn onsale for $70-some odd dollars... ridiculously low, I thought. Compared to the Staghorn... the Buckhorn had a nicer stock - made of a kind of semi-grippy, comfortable synthetic - much better than Staghorn. Studs for swivels built into stock. It also had a better safety, smaller open area where the striker is, diff barrel contour, and a MUCH better/stronger (aluminum) ramrod with metal guides. Additionally, it had better sights (which I removed when I put on 1.75-4x32mm Bushnell Trophy scope). The trigger was 90% as good as the Staghorn's, which is a compliment; the Staghorn's trigger was very light and crisp, much better than that the Savage .270 I'd sold off (which wasn't bad).

Bottom line - for well under a hundred bucks I got a comfortable, accurate rifle. Yippee. Got me five or six pounds of Pyrodex RS while I was there, at $5/pount. I used 777 that previous season... but at the price, I switched to Pyro. It has worked very well so far this year!

My $.02 of pissin'

This reply is not necessarily to Cactus, his just happens to be the last post in the line...

If I were given the choice of the bottom line NEF and a Yukon - I am afraid I would choose the Yukon. Not trying to choose between an American gun or a Spanish gun. I just do not fancy a NEF and the Yukon does show me some promise.

One man has destroyed the reputation of Spanish gun makers and we all or lot of us swallowed it. This one man attacked CVA then inluded Traditions, and or any Spanish gun - but the early Austin & Hallecks which had the same barrel were OK. Money is/was his motivation.

The Yukon is a much more modern gun with better lines. I honestly can not say it shoots well because I do not have one but to condem it just because is is Spanish is not the way to go.

Buy American - a really good policy but today with the disappearance of the middle class American you can not always afford to buy American you, I, have to look at the best value. Again I have not done my homework so I can not say the bottom line NEF and the bottom Yukon are any better than each other but Traditions has had a lot of good guns.

Also remember the Traditions Yukon and the Remington Genesis are contracted from Ardesa Arms. Neither Remington or Traditions build them, and in Europe Ardesa is a well respected company.

LOL! i know what you're saying. CVA sent me a staghorn .50 as an replacement for my cva blazer that i broke and they sent me that due to the cva blazer no longer in production. That was a fun shooting rifle. I only shot it around 20 times for fun but sold it when my new winchester came in. No need for 2 inlines, plus the winchester was easier to take down. I just thought the comment about NEF kicking any cva's butt was a little out of line. Not all rifles of the same brand and caliber will shoot the same. As for powder, Ive only used pyrodex since the first day i started muzzleloading. I used to LOVE my inline but now that i bought a flintlock, theres nothing sweeter than seeing that huge flash and the crack of the rifle going off and seeing a buck flip straight onto his back, dead. Im hooked on flintlocks!

I dont think my comment on the NEF Sidekick kicking the CVA's ass was out of line it was a simple opinion....I dont condem anyone to hell for not owning a NEF I just stated an opinion that might have leaned tobeing a bit cocky, HOWEVER when I break out my Sidekick with 100gr. of triple 7 and put a 250 g.bonded Shockwavein it, I have no doubts.

You have no doubt of... what? Correctness of your purchase? Superiority of your rifle? Deadliness of your load? You ability to hit the target?

I've slowly learned that the ability to find the deer, then HIT the deer well, is the biggest factor in hunting success. A dirt-cheap sabot bullet and 80-90gr of Pyrodex is a 99% solution, if you do your part. I'm convinced of that... it's just fun to talk about gear, but they don't matter all that much, IMHO.

All the above mentioned....

"One man has destroyed the reputation of Spanish gun makers and we all or lot of us swallowed it."

Are you referring to Chuck Hawks, Sabotloader?

I do not know if the CVA's are more accurate than the NEF because I haven't shot them. I can tell you one thingI do know though. The NEF is by far better built than any CVA, excluding the ramrod. I've held the CVA Wolf and NEF Sidekick and would go with the NEF simply because it is built so much better. Those are my opinions and don't want to argue.

Bought a CVA Wolf afew weeks ago. Shoots well and produces good groups at 100 yds. Great guns for the money