RUSTED!!! CVA Optima
 

Ok... I have been shooting my TC Omega for several years & love it... so I am not new to this...

But my cousin in just getting into hunting... after he killed a nice bukc w/ my gun last year.... So I was checking the local pawn shop for some deals... they have a decent optima that I am considering for $120... but then he reaches behind the counter & pulls out this Nickel Optima w/ synthetic stock.... and the outside of the barrel is pretty pitted... so I pull the breech plug & look down the barrel & it looked pretty crusty... couldn't tell much with the low light in the shop...

He told me I could have it for $20.... wondering if it would be possible to bring this "project" back from the dead??? Or if it's a lost cause that I should walk away from???

No way to tell until you buy it and try to clean up...

A hundred strokes with JB Bore Paste can to wonders though...

It may group 3 inches at 100 yards vs 1 1/2...If ranges are within 100, it will
be a cheap deal...

Heck, the stock and extra parts are worth a 20...

Pass on the gun. Dealing with a badly rusty gun is not worth the hassle.

If the optima for a 120 has a good barrel buy it .

buy both guns. order a new barrel for the rusty one and sell one of them to your cousin. problem solved.

Offer him $120 for both guns. Then you can't lose.

I would look the gun over real close. But for 20 bucks.. if the trigger and hammer work good.. and you can get the breech plug out, well as I used to say, I left more money then that in a urinal on a good time Friday night.

I would get it as a project gun. Scrub the barrel down, if necessary a mild lapp of the barrel would help. It might be a short range shooter, say 75 yards or less, but it would be fun to have for part if anything else.

Just thinking that maybe and optima elite for 20 if so you can buy any cal barrel for the gun.

What I would do in that situation is try for a good price on both guns like 110 the strip the rusty one and soak all the parts in Evapo-Rust and clean them up then polish the mating surfaces and order a new barrel for it with a bit of polishing it should be usable or saleable.
I would not try to force the action to work as you might damage parts, once it's cleaned up then you will be able to see what is needed if anything.

Really not that simple. You have as much as a new gun by just buying the barrel from CVA. They sent me a Version 1 Accura frame for a Version 2 one time. They told me that I could keep the wrong frame. I thought well I wonder if I could just get a barrel and stock for this frame so I called them up. When they told me the price I laughed and asked them if they were mistaken. I could of got a brand new version 2 accura for what they wanted for the version 1 barrel and stock. I suspect you would not be ahead by just getting a barrel but you never know I guess.

What Muley said! If you can get them both for $120-$130...go for it! You can always use the rusty one for a project gun. Watch Ebay for used parts, etc. Maybe scour it out with JB paste and get it shooting decent and keep it as a "back up only" gun and tweek the good one in and use it.

I once brought home a Traditions in-line rifle (can't remember which model) from my Mother-in-laws shop that had the old style spring cocking mechanism. She had bought it from an individual for $50. The bore looked good, but a lot of the blackened parts showed rust and the man told her he didn't know much about muzzleloading rifles so I doubt he ever took any time to develop a load.

I took it apart, cleaned it up and took all of the blackened parts to work with me and polished them and then had them run through our black bath tanks. I sighted the rifle in with 90gr. of loose Pyro RS and some Powerbelt (I believe 250gr.) bullets I had to spare and got very good accuracy with it. I took it back to her shop with the sight-in target and load data written on it and told her to ask $100 for it.

A week later the same man she bought it from bought it back!


BPS

Tell him to throw in the rusty one and he has a deal. I have a Knight that I bought in an online auction. When I got it there was a rust spot about 3" from the muzzle in the bore. Someone on here told me to use Evaporust on it. I did and it came right out. That barrel is as clean as a whistle and shoots great.

Rust is one thing, but pitting is horrible!!! Tried to work with a barrel that had rust and after working on it a while I found the pitting to be too much. I couldn't get it to shoot worth a darn. But who knows, like Dave said I also left more then $20 in a bar urinal!!!

Good luck pal