MountainDevil54

A member over at my place sent me this and asked if I could take a look at it. Its a CVA Hawken and came with the combo barrels of 50 and 54cal. Not 100% sure of the twist just yet but he said he measured a 1/4 turn at 16.5" which should make it 1:66 twist.

At first glace I noticed the lock was sticking out of the stock BIG time, like someone had used an electric sander and removed so much wood around the lock panel, that most of the lock was sticking outside of the inletting.

I put that off to the side and remove the barrel to inspect the nipple threads, bore and run the bore camera down to see how the rifling and the bolster set up looked inside. Everything checked out nicely, especially the channel where the powder flows into the drum. They did a nice job of cutting a smooth funnel, so getting powder under the nipple should not be an issue with this one.

Then I removed the under rib and cleaned everything, lightly coated under the under rib and barrel itself with Hopper Spit, a dab of blue loctite on all screws including the ramrod thimbles themselves as they love to come loose.

Got to the lock and found that it was shimmed out big time with plastic washers and some thick aluminum foil type stuff. I scratched my head as I did not understand why. I removed it, put the lock into place and the hammer was perfectly center with the nipple.

The lock was partially taken apart. There was 2 new main springs that came with it so I took a new one, put it in the vise and SNAP! just a litle pressure broke it

Luckily the old one was with it so I put that back into place and had zero trouble.

The lock internals were actually very nicely done and so I did not have to do anything but clean the parts and then coat the rubbing surfaces with MLP lubricant and a little RIG oil to keep things moving freely. A very smooth non gritty lock.

Triggers again were perfect, maybe set at a little less than 3lbs but smoooth. Again, a little MLP, a touch of RIG and back they went.

I decided to go all out.

Every time I work on one of these old CVA Hawken rifles I feel a special closeness to them as they are my all time favorite sidelock to build off of. I can do everything from a .32cal all the way up to a .58cal just by ordering the barrels and doing a little bedding/letting/ wedge key relocation.

With most of the "hard" stuff finished, I decided to give the tang, trigger plate and barrel a coat of johnsons floor paste wax and then bedded everything. I am letting the barrel set up now for the rest of the day and tonight I'll break everything loose.

I know the tang and trigger plate is where the accuracy comes from with this model of Hawken, so there was no reason to send it back without having this done. The tang LOVES to flex and pull that trigger plate into the wood and then that leaves your with a loose tang screw and poor accuracy. Same problem those great plains rifles have until you bed the tang and the screws into the stock.

One thing I recommended was updated sights! Those rear sights are real shoddy and love to bind up. I actually replaced the original with another original style but bedded it otherwise it would lock up. The bedding took care of this issue.

A browned barrel and refinished stock would make her a real nice piece of eye candy!