Corpsman45

Thanks alot! I'll have to track down the posts. I tried doing a search on most of my questions, trying to find everything relating to newcomers, but the search came up empty. I'll track what he's put up then. By the way, does anyone have an opinion on the difference between a .50 cal and a .54 cal? I'm looking at getting a kit for my birthday in a couple weeks, either a Traditions Kentucky rifle, or a Traditions Hawken rifle, and both come in .50 and .54. Is ammo easier to come by for one or the other?

HEAD0001

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.

Gm54-120

$40 for a Bergara barrel?

I dont think so, i was quoted $180 for a 50cal Accura barrel directly from CVA. Do you mean the barrels Ed Shilen helped develop for Bergara or barrels made many years ago?

I remember when i could buy TC Contender barrels for just $50-$120 so i guess those were poor quality too?

liquidorange

Where can you get a cva barrel for 40$ ???

Corpsman45

I didn't pay $40 for the barrel, I paid it for the whole thing. Part of what made me so suspiciuos in the first place. But basically, I was at a gun show, and found a guy that had a lot of stuff for pretty cheap. Off in a corner rack, he had this old, beat up, CVA rifle that he seemed to know nothing about. He seemed to know less about BP than I do. It was missing the wedge that holds the barel down, so it felt like it was falling apart, and it looked like someone had left it on their workbench for a few years. There's alot of surface rust, there will be some minor pitting, and the whole thing had had white paint splattered on it, there were what looked like vice marks on one part of the barrel, and the bore was obstructed. It looked like crap, frankly.
But the mechanical parts work good, the nipple looked almost brand new, and the area of the barrel where it screws in looked good, and what I could see of the bore looked good. Seemed like a nice project. I talked him down to $40 from $60. It took me hours to get the obstruction out, turns out that somebody managed to snap off the end of the cleaning/ramrod and lodge the brush in there. It'll take some more tlc to clean up the rest, but the paint's coming off alright, I got the brass to make a new wedge, and I'm thinking I'll strip/lightly sand the barrel to get rid of the rust, and re-blue it. i'll have to blue the barrel in the kit I want to do, so I think it would be good practice.
I'm traveling back to Oregon soon, and there's a BP gunsmith at a specialty shop there that'll look over it for me, but I think I made a pretty good choice. Worst case scenario, I make alot of mistakes on it so I don't make them on my kit gun, and have something neat to hang on the wall. Best case scenario, I have a sweet rifle that I have a deep conection to from having brought it back from the dead and making her a nice, pretty deer slayer again.

Corpsman45

Here are some pics. I got much of the paint off, just some splatter left. In the one where it's apart, you can really see how bad the barrel looks, and clearly see the vise marks.

HEAD0001

The OP was talking about an older CVA rifle. And I sold complete CVA rifles for $60. So yes those barrels probably cost $40 brand new in that time period. No one dated the post. Read what the OP said. He said it was an older rifle. So I was comparing the older barrels. And wasn't that where the CVA scare came from?? The older barrels?? And wasn't the scare because of how Spain tested their barrels?? If I am wrong-please explain. But do not take one line out of text. Tom.

Rogo

CVA now puts Bergara barrels on most of their good rifles. 416 stainless steel. They are great barrel! Apparently there are some RW fans on here that still believe all that crap that happened back in 1995 and 1996. CVA is under new ownership now and are selling a very good product. You can pay more money to buy a TC product if you want buy you will only be getting their name on your gun.

Breechplug

I LOVE CVA's But use your own Discretion on the ML, and some Professional Advice as to the condition of the Barrel, if all is well have no worries and Balst Away!

MountainDevil54

at the time, cva used to proof their barrels at 10,000 psi . this was in the days when they only had patched round ball style rifles. Since then, people have used this against cva and claim they only test their barrels up to 10,000psi. This is untrue, cva tests their barrels past 29,000psi. Not every barrel gets tested, same with TC, Knight, traditions and most other muzzleloader barrels except for savage (smokeless) The barrels are made to top quality specs and as i said earlier, made to handle pressures exceeding 29,000psi.

Im not to sure where you can buy brand new cva barrels for $40, i cant find one, but a barrel for the plainsman will run you about $85 + shipping from Deer Creek Products.

Thats a nice Plainsman by the way! I really enjoyed mine when i had it. If yours has a heavy trigger pull, you can replace the tumbler in the lock for only around $10-$12. Very simple item to replace. Also make sure the Tang screw it tight, if its loose it and crack the stock on recoil and really hurt the accuracy if its loose.