CVA Optima V2 primer blowback

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Messages
80
Reaction score
29
Just received a brand new CVA Optima V2 and a brand new Blackhorn 209 breech plug. Went to the range for the first time yesterday. I'm using Federal 209A primers and Blackhorn 209 powder. The primers are coming out black and there is soot on the breech face and the end of the breech plug. I've been researching and I've seen suggestions of putting an o-ring inside the breech plug (does this actually work and will the o-ring stay in the breech plug?) I've read about putting a shim inside the firing pin assembly to move the breech face closer to the primer. Again, does this really work? I checked to see if I was getting any crush on the primers and the answer is no. No crush on .295" Federal 209A's or on .302" Winchester 209's.

As a side note, I also have the older style CVA Optima with a Blackhorn 209 breechplug and it does not have blowback issues and it doesn't get any crush on Federal 209A's but it does get a .001 crush on Winchester 209's.

What do I do? Thank you.
 
I have the Optima V2 and use the Winchester W209 primers and have very little, if any, blow back.
 
Is your firing pin bushing flush with the standing breech, or recessed? If recessed, call CVA for a firing pin bushing shim kit. They only want you to shim it out flush.

The o-ring works well, and allows you to use different length primers. It is a consumable though, and will last for around 40 shots or so.

If you turn your firing pin bushing out until it's flush, does your primer fit snug? Take a straight edge and lay it across the top if the breech plug and primer. If you still have excessive headspace, take your unloaded rifle to a safe place. Measure the length of your primer, install it in the rifle and fire the primer only in a safe direction. The primer cup will back out of the battery cup. Carefully remove it and measure the length. Subtract your original measurement from your current length, and that will give you your excessive headspace measurement.

Either shim it, or use an o-ring from there.
 
Thank you for the part # for the o-ring. Went to their website and ordered a package of them.

I would say that the firing pin bushing is flush with the breech face or ever so very slightly recessed. Definitely not protruding. If it is recessed, it's got to be within .001 or .002" of being flush.

I will try turning out the firing pin bushing a little and see at what point I can get contact with the primer.
 
I tried turning out the firing pin bushing a quarter turn from snug. At that point I can see that the bushing is ever so slightly protruding from the breech face and I can get a .001" crush on Winchester primers but not on Federal primers.
 
We use the Master Carr rubber O-Ring on our 3 Accuras and find that this has eliminated the blowback which was fouling the firing pin assembly. Our primers are now clean and you can get 15/30 shots before you have to replace the O-Ring. This also corrects the difference in the lengths of various primers. We clean the fire channel with the 1/8" drill bit, hand only, & the fire hole with a short piece of SS wire. Two of us use 2 pellets of T7 & my other son uses BH209. The Accuras are crazy accurate.
 
Thanks for all the pointers.

Clearly Winchester primers are a better fit in the Blackhorn 209 breech plug. Can see that when I put a Federal and then a Winchester into the breech plug and then lay a straight edge across the back of the breech plug. The Winchester is noticably closer to being even with the straight edge than the Federal. Seems like a person should be shooting Winchesters if they produce enough fire.
 
An issue when using an o-ring is that you can't simply close the action and expect the firing pin to fire, especially with a new o-ring. It will keep the action from closing completely and engaging the trigger. You have to close the action quickly and smartly, sort of slam it shut. This gets a bit better after the o-ring has been used a while but I find it to be a pain, plus it is noisy. Get the shim kit and shim the firing pin bushing for .002-.003" crush with the Winchester primers. It's not difficult to do and once done, you never have to worry about changing o-rings or whether the rifle will fire. I've done this with all 3 of my CVA rifles and it's the only way to go, IMO.
 
Both an Optima and an Accura I own had some issues with soot in the breech area while using 209 plugs and blackhorn until I switched to the blue box Winchester 209 primers. That simple.
 
I shot a lot during winter last year and never had an issue with the Winchester primers. They were plenty hot down to around -10 degrees on one morning.
 
OK, I got the O-rings and I got the shim kit. I installed the O-ring first and it is very stiff to close the action with Win 209's, too stiff to use hunting. Has a little resistance with Federals but doable. So then I took the o-ring out and put in 15/1000th of shim. With that in, the firing pin bushing protrudes a tiny bit from the breech face. I do not get any crush on Fed 209A's or Win 209's. Should I shim it a little further? I know CVA doesn't want you to have a protruding firing pin bushing.
 
Shim until you get about .002" crush on the Winchester primers, which are longest of the 209 primers, and you will then not have any problems with excessive crush if you use a different brand. It doesn't matter if the face of the firing pin bushing is slightly raised from the receiver face. Yes, CVA says not to shim more than flush but this is only to cover themselves from any liability if someone over-shimmed to a situation where closing the breech would cause the primer to fire. If you have no more than .002-003" crush on the Winchester 209s, this will never be an issue. When you then use Winchester primers, you will have no blow back and your rifle's breech will stay clean. I know Western Powders doesn't recommend Winchester primers for BH209 because they are not as hot as Federal or CCI primers, but I have used them for hundreds of shots in all weather and never had a misfire in 3 different CVA rifles with the BH209 breech plug.
 
Got to the range today to do my primer test as well as to test some Lehigh Controlled Fragmenting bullets. The Winchesters fired the charges just fine and did not have any blowback. The Fed 209A's all had blowback. Still fired the loads fine but a lot of soot
 
qwakattak said:
Got to the range today to do my primer test as well as to test some Lehigh Controlled Fragmenting bullets. The Winchesters fired the charges just fine and did not have any blowback. The Fed 209A's all had blowback. Still fired the loads fine but a lot of soot
You went from a primer longest in length to one of shortest primers in length. The Federals can be up to .004" shorter than the Winchesters, which is why you are getting blow back from them. I would just stick with using the Winchester primers, They will have no issues igniting BH209 with the CVA BH209 breech plug. I have used a couple of thousand of them and never had a misfire.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top