I've owned two CVA's, the eclipse and the magbolt. I bought both of them when they first came out on the market. Initially I was very impressed with both. However, I shoot a lot. I noticed that both rifles had a dramatic drop in accuracy after about 150 rounds. Its not a cleaning problem, as I have owned other brands and didn't have the problems with the others. Do you think the barrel wore out, or is there something i'm not thinking of that caused this change

Today, I'm left with the my .54 Cal T/C Thunderhawk and .50 Cal T/C Black Diamond XR. These guns have stood the test of time.....thus far.

Could be a cleaning problem. The CVA's have much rougher barrels than the knights and encores from what i have seen and collect that plastic easier from Sabot or lead from conicals. I used JB Bore cleaner which is abrasive to get out all of the plastic from past Traditions. Made alot of difference. Very hard to wear out a Muzzleloader barrel. Especially since the pressures don't reach past 30KPSI and velocity is so low. And bore is so large compared to 65Kpsi and small bore of a 22-250.

I've been told that CVA's and Traditions are made from a softer steel than the American built muzzleloaders. It's possible that this softer steel can wear out. I don't know for sure though. If your shooting sabots, bigcountry's response is probaly your problem. Get a solvent that dissolves plastic fouling.

You know for some reason, my new knight disc elite has a pretty rough barrel. I have two knight, and they were always smoother than most. This elite does however shoot 1.5" groups with 240gr XTP's. But I really had to work to get out all the plastic.

Is it stainless steel or blued? The blued is a little softer and breaks in faster while the stainless takes longer to break in, but wears much slower. The very first thing I do when I get a new muzzleloader is clean the heck out of it. The second is run a full package of copper clad powerbelts through it swabing between every shot. I've found that when shooting sabots, shooting a pkg of powerbelts helps smooth the rifling out and probably helps with my accuracy. All the rifles I have here have had this done to them. Knight Extreme, T/C Omega, Knight Wolverine, and Lyman Great Plains rifle all give me superb accuracy. I have to wonder if I just got good ones (all recieved through mail order) or if my slight break in procedure helped some. The only rifles I ever had problems with were a CVA Hunterbolt and Traditions Buckhunter. Both suffered accuracy problems with sabots but faired pretty well with various conicals. Since I generally dislike heavy conicals I sold them.

The reasons for reduction in accuracy can be very simple. First off due to your experience with rifles I am sure it is not a matter of technique. I am guessing you're an above average shot.

I would look at such things as; Have I changed my powder, sabots, lube, cleaning procedures, cleaning chemicals, even loading techniques. If all of them are the same as when you were getting exceptional accuracy, then I would start checking simple things like the scope or sights. Are the screws all tight? Does anything look out of place? I had a rifle about sent me over the edge one afternoon. We are talking a tack driver. I finally frustrated beyond belief looked and noticed the screw was almost worked all the way out of the left to right adjustment.

If your sure everything is the same and you have changed nothing, then I would suggest checking the barrel closer. Get some J.B. Bore Paste and scrub the barrel. I do my barrels every five range sessions whether they need it or not. The only difference is I run only one patch of it.

If that does not fix the problem, then I would lapp the barrel. There are two ways to lapp a barrel. You can fire lapp them or old fashion scrub lapp them. I scrub lapp almost every rifle I own at some time in its life. Sometimes more then once. This will usually make the most stuborn rifle behave and come back around.

Hope you figure out the problem. Yes rifle barrels will wear out but we are talking thousands and thousands of shots. In fact most report that the accuracy gets better with age because you are wearing all the ruff places out of the barrel which is the same thing that lapping does.

To check and see if your barrel needs lapping. Put two cotton balls on your patch worm and run that down the barrel slow, and back up. After that drop a bore light or in the case of a in line look into a bright light through it. Can you see any of the fibers from the cotton ball? If you can then you need to lapp the barrel. The amount of cotton it is catching is directly related to the amount you have to lapp.

Good Luck...

Also, you might have to change up your load a tad. The barrel might be getting broke in. I have encountered this also.

do I believe it "Yes"
I had a T/C hawken I got about 26 years ago. I started to have a problem with groups. I did everything I knew to do and still didn't cure the problem.so I took it to a gun smith.he told me the riffilings were gone.
So I sent it to T/C and they told me the same thing.

They sent me a brand new gun....so yes I do believ you can wear one out.

Of course they can wear out, as tree-climber has related, but the problem you are seeing in those CVAs is early life and not unique. I've seen no definitive cure posted for the problem - but CVA warranty service is quite good. I would be curious to know what loads you were shooting in those rifles.

One other area to check, that I think Cayugad might have left out in his good post, is the crown of the bore. It is possible you have damaged the crown by either loading or cleaning technique or perhaps worsened an existing flaw. Crowns are difficult to check in a barrel with a recessed crown but still worth an effort toward inspection. Look for any deviations from uniformity. There are tools made to polish crowns and those alone might cure your rifle's ills.

The "easy load" section at the end of the barrel can be a problem area for accuracy. While you are there anyway, look that over carefully to make sure there are no deposits of material or rough areas. These "QLA like" barrels are handy for sabot users but may not be worth the complications.