welllllll ......................... i called midway about sending it back .
i was cleaning the barrel and my cleaning patches kept coming off on the out stroke . they kept sliding off at the bottom seemingly as soon as i pulled back on the RR and i had to keep taking the breech plug out to push it out . there is also less pressure going down the MRX barrel with the jag/patch than the old optima . i was using my range rod , not the bunji that comes with it . i still haven't gave steve his 2003 optima back yet and i used the same CVA patches and rod on it and it did just fine , no issue at all . i looked in the barrel and the rifling is MUCH shallower than the old optima . Madison at midway put me on hold and came back and said she was gonna set it up but they want me to send pics of the rifling so i will do that . but i told her if i cant even swab the bore without having to pull the breech plug that that was a MAJOR problem and that i now have zero faith in cva guns . i was polite and didn't raise my voice or get crappy but i stressed that was absolutely not acceptable and mentioned the problems with the 45s and that i thought the 50 would be ok . this has not been shot yet , i was just cleaning it to play with it a little . anyhow , i'm disappointed of course , particularly since this was a gift . she said they'll be open monday so i'll e-mail pics tomorrow (and post them here) and hopefully it's a trouble free return .