Range Report on CVA Mountain Rifle!!!
 

Well changed my plans and went to the range and had to shoot the new rifle. I was very impressed. I had to sight in the rifle first and this went well. The Leupold is a dream of a scope to work with. I ended up shooting three different type bullets. I sighted in with the Hornady FPB 300 gr. and this went well and then after doing this I had a lot of fun shooting my groups. All groups were shot with 90 grs. of BH209 at 50 yd. distances. All bullets were 300 grs in weight.

First I grouped the Hornady FPB 300 gr. bullets:



This pasty is the larger one and you can see the size of the group. I shot all these targets at 50 yds. So this group is considered ok for hunting purposes, but not mine.

Next I loaded up The Hornady XTP bullets:




Now this was a 6 shot group and I was very pleased. I can't wait till next week and shoot this gun out to 100 yds.

Last I shot the Parker bullets:




Now these bullets performed very nicely. And I can expect to see great groups out to 100 yds next week. This 6 shot group was the best. I love the XTP and the Parkers for sure!!!

I must say that during my stay at the range I never swabbed the barrel once with the BH209. It is great to use.

The recoil was very nice and din't bother me at all. The gun is light, but the recoil was not bad. The recoil pad is not as soft as some of the newer pad coming on the market today, but it worked well. I did have one problem with the gun.

After my shooting session and while I was getting ready to clean the rifle, I noticed that the weather guard chipped off around the muzzle:




Now this was the only thing that really bothered me about a new gun! I don't thnk I should experience this after the first shoot. I guess you can say I am not a happy person with this condition! The company should have known the this area of the barrel would be subject to severe and violent activity. They should have paid more attention to the coating in this area.

Other then the coating chipping off, I am happy with this gun. Now I have to figure out who to call to let them know I am unhappy with this problem and how we can solve it. Any ideas? Seems that when deal with a foreign company, I can expect to be prepared to go up against a wall.

I'd call them up. I shot mine today too, and I didn't get any chipping.

One thing I did do is take off that new hard recoil pad, and put the one off my Wolf on it. I talked to CVA today, and they don't know why the new pads are so hard. Go figure.

Muley, You going soft on us? A big ol mtn man like you shooting those sidelocks should make even a hard recoil pad seem tame.
RASOB - it will be interesting to see what CVA has to say about the chipping issue. If I were to design the rifle I would have stopped the weathershield type coating just outside the crown. Afterally the barrel is SS. That was one of the pluses for me in buying the Accura over the Triumph. I wanted the SS and not a weather shield coated chrome moly barrel.

Very nice shooting there. Especially those Parkers. That is a heck of a load.

Mountain men never lived as long as me. :p

I have a crappy shoulder. It's not fond of recoil.

What did you use to show the pictures? Photobucket is down.

Rafsob,
Did they use 416 grade stainless steel under that coating?
Very nice first outing.

OK old man - I'll forgive you. Maybe you should go to Walmart and get a Limbsaver slip on to use to sight in your new toy. I use one when sighting in my bog boys. Like my Browning 78 in .45-70 with its steel cresent buttplate. That's a punisher on both ends. So is my Ruger #1 in .405 Win.
I haven't found a ML I need it on yet. Maybe if I got a big old .58 that shoots those big balls.
RASOB - forgot to mention. Nice shooting.

They need to get rid of that weather guard coating in my opinion. I don't understand why it is on stainless steel!

Bronko.........Normally, i'd be fine, but I cracked a rib last week. The shooting wrecked any healing i'd gotten so far. This is going to be a painful hunt. It starts this Sat. OUCH!!

I agree. I would have been just as happy without the coating, but it is what it is. Just have to deal with it.

They are probably just so used to copying TC that they didn't stop and think that they didn't have to on this deal :D

I didn't know TC used SS barrels. :p

The context was the weather guard coating, remember that's what was chipping, but you probably flunked English , or maybe when you went to school they hadn't voted to decide between English or German yet.
:biggrin::biggrin:

You know what I meant knucklehead.

nice shooter but that chip worries me. You have a muzzle protector that you can use?

I looked at one today over lunch and while the gun seemed to be very well made (much better than the V1 Accura I had), but the finish seemed to be haphazardly applied, especially around the receiver. They really should ditch it, and drop the price about $50.

I have two 9 day hunts this year. I'll give a report on how it held up.

I'm pretty easy on guns though. I hardly ever mark them.

You hardly ever keep them long enough to mark them :party0005:

Seems to be, but I still have the Winchester 94 30-30 that my dad gave me for Christmas in 1954.

I won't be selling the MR.

After your hunt send it to me, I will give a full unbiased and detailed report . How's that for being such a nice guy?

Hey Pete, we need to go on a 3030 hunt! I still have the marlin 3030 my dad gave me back when i was 10 years old.

Sure, the 1st rifle season would be good.

That's not all that long ago. That gun should hardly be broke in . :happy0157:

Muley, TC does use SS , take a look at the King of the Mountain X7 ...

I would be on the phone with CVA before leaving the range.Have you gotten a responce back from them yet .To spend 400$ plus , thats my guess on a new gun you should not have any issues. The R and D should have known that area would be subject to the most punishment of the gun barrel....

We all have our favorites but we shall see how CVA handles it.
Steve

x7 is no longer made

We all know that, the statement was they don't make SS.I gave an example. Just happens to be the King of the Mountains.

Hopefully for Rafsob case CVA makes good on this and it doesn't happen to others. I am starting to see the MR in all the mags and local stores.

I was thinking of the Triumph/BC. I forgot about the Omega.

I'm thinking if the coating overlaps into the bore. It will peal off. Maybe a little file work will smooth it out so the bullet/jag can't catch it.

Yes on that steel.

Somehow I have a feeling I lost this thread! Fist off I don't misuse my guns and I didn't strong arm this one. This coating chipped of during normal use. And I will be sending CVA an email with pictures to get some action going. Now don't get me wrong, everything else about this gun is great. Should they have left off the coating, maybe!

well over time we will see how this coating holds up. Im not big into the coating stuff but it was nice to see the SS covered up for once. You'd think something like powder coating would be used?

This article may explain why the coating:

http://www.schuemann.com/LinkClick.a...bid=67&mid=445


Here's an excerpt

When we entered the barrel manufacturing business in 1992 we did not know which steel would be the best choice for pistol barrels. But, finding that virtually all pistol barrels were manufactured from Type 416 Stainless Steel made it easy to decide to use 416 stainless in our barrels too. Since then we have learned that 416 stainless is not the best steel for pistol barrels, especially given the way we use pistol barrels in IPSC shooting. But 416 does have many properties which facilitate the successful manufacture of pistol barrels. Hence the manufacturers of pistol barrels prefer using Type 416 Stainless Steel.
There are a number of problems with 416 Stainless Steel
Problem number 1:
416 Stainless is not very "stainless".
The term "stainless steel" conjures up an image of a steel which is impervious to attack by water and common chemicals. Unfortunately, Type 416 Stainless Steel easily rusts and corrodes, though not as readily as the carbon steels do. This 416 characteristic is discussed extensively in the section of this web site on the cleaning of pistol barrels.
Problem Number 2:
416 Stainless is not a good heat conductor.
Type 416 Stainless is an alloy steel, and therefore has less thermal conductivity than less exotic steels. Its thermal conductivity is roughly half of the thermal conductivity of basic steel. This results in some general problems and one specific problem.
The general problems result from the hot propellant gasses in contact with the barrel bore. The propellants we use have a flame temperture of about 4500 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of adiabatic compression the temperature of the propellant gasses can increase to temperatures much higher than 4500 degrees Fahrenheit. This hot gas sweeps down the bore when a round is fired. The hot gas transfers heat into the surface of the bore. After each round is fired the heat which flowed into the bore surface is gradually conducted away by the barrel steel. Because the 416 steel has less thermal conductivity the heat flows away more slowly and if numerous rounds are fired in quick succession the surface temperature of the bore can become higher than a basic steel bore surface would.
While we don't have quantitative measurements of peak bore temperature we do know that some returned barrels have a brownish purple color on the bore surface which indicates bore surface temperatures reached a minimum of 1300 degrees fahrenheit for extended periods of time. Such temperatures would anneal the 416 steel, thereby permanently softening the steel surface. This softened steel surface would be more easily scratched and worn by the subsequent passage of bore brushes and bullets, as discussed in the barrel cleaning section of this web site.
Schueman Barrels
POB 50 PMB 177
White Salmon, WA 98672 (509) 493-3514 www.schuemann.com
Barrel Steel

smokeless barrel vs black powder, i believe SML will always produce more heat.

I relate reason for the coating to problem #1
But listed a link to the whole article .

Yeah but who is using anything other than 416 stainless? You may be right that maybe CVA was thinking this but I have never had a problem with stainless rusting and whatnot. I always clean my gun so that may be it too.

416 is probably the most common because of machinability
High quality barrels often use 416r which is an improved steel. I think the machining , heat treating and other things involved in the manufacturing process can make a big difference. And while 416 is very common there are other steels used like chromoly and others. The big problem with 416 is all 416 isn't equal, it can depend on the sulphur content. I'm not positive but fairly sure that Green mountain barrels for knight are 416 also

Ah I gotcha and that makes sense. I don't know much about metallurgy and whatnot. Yeah Knight says that their green mountain barrels are 416 stainless on the website.

I don't know much about it either. I had a friend who was a machinist and he was quite knowledgable. Me, I thought it was all Mumbo jumbo
When he talked but some of what he said made a little sense. I do believe the process and heat treating makes a difference because I once had a cheap gun and the bore got dinged up from shooting some steel bullets. It appeared to me the bore was to soft. A lot of the real quality in a gun isn't visible but it shows up over time .

zero issues with 416 SS rusting, even after hiking through a blizzard for 4 hours.