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Long story, but wanted to share some background on this.
In the 70’s my wife’s grandfather, Burt, put together a CVA mountain rifle kit in .50 caliber. (Yes, one of the “Made in the USA” on the barrel ones). His wife bought it for him, more for the project than his desire to shoot a BP rifle. After putting it together he hung it on the mantle. He didn’t know how to shoot one and figured one day he’d run into someone that he could have show him how to shoot and care for them.
He never did get around to shooting it.
When I met him I asked him about it and he told me the above story. It had hung on the mantle for about 40 some years. I told him that I knew about them and could pick up a couple things to be able to shoot it ( I only had stuff for my .54). He said he’d love to shoot it.
As happens, a few years went by without us getting the chance to take it out. Burt lives about an hour away from us.
This year he up and gave it to his son in law, my wife’s dad Ted. Ted noticed a few problems with it and brought it over to me, knowing that I am “crazy” for muzzleloaders.
It had some slight surface rust here and there, but not bad at all. I found the bore to look great, it had the super dried factory grease still in the barrel. NOT fun to remove I might add The set trigger didn’t work, the hammer released from full cock if you pushed on it with not much pressure, and both the wedge pins could be easily pushed out.
I shimmed the bottom of the stock, as the wedge pins were so loose just bending them a bit didn’t work. I read that the stocks were inletted too much from the factory for the trigger assembly, very common issue, and so I shimmed the front of the trigger assembly a bit. All functions as it should now.
Ted and I decided that Burt should be the first to fire it. We did just that about a month ago. I just did a light load of 3f and damp patch lube so several shots could be easily fired. Burt looked like a kid at Christmas when he shot it off that first time.
Ted left the rifle with me so I can establish a good shooting hunting load for it, which is the reason this is in the range report section. I finally got out and shot it yesterday.
The first target was 50 yards, 70 grains of Goex 3f, a .490 Hornady RB, and a .015” cotton patch hand lubed with Frontiers patch lube. The low right shot was the foul shot. I made a sight adjustment and then fired 3 more. I swabbed between shots with one damp and one dry patch.
I upped the charge to 75 grains and shot 6 more times. I felt myself pull the left most shot, but am not sure about the other one out of the group. The other 4 shots made a ragged hole.
The rear sight has no windage adjustment, so when I got home I drifted the front sight to the right a bit after cleaning the rifle.
I think it’s going to be a shooter.
In the 70’s my wife’s grandfather, Burt, put together a CVA mountain rifle kit in .50 caliber. (Yes, one of the “Made in the USA” on the barrel ones). His wife bought it for him, more for the project than his desire to shoot a BP rifle. After putting it together he hung it on the mantle. He didn’t know how to shoot one and figured one day he’d run into someone that he could have show him how to shoot and care for them.
He never did get around to shooting it.
When I met him I asked him about it and he told me the above story. It had hung on the mantle for about 40 some years. I told him that I knew about them and could pick up a couple things to be able to shoot it ( I only had stuff for my .54). He said he’d love to shoot it.
As happens, a few years went by without us getting the chance to take it out. Burt lives about an hour away from us.
This year he up and gave it to his son in law, my wife’s dad Ted. Ted noticed a few problems with it and brought it over to me, knowing that I am “crazy” for muzzleloaders.
It had some slight surface rust here and there, but not bad at all. I found the bore to look great, it had the super dried factory grease still in the barrel. NOT fun to remove I might add The set trigger didn’t work, the hammer released from full cock if you pushed on it with not much pressure, and both the wedge pins could be easily pushed out.
I shimmed the bottom of the stock, as the wedge pins were so loose just bending them a bit didn’t work. I read that the stocks were inletted too much from the factory for the trigger assembly, very common issue, and so I shimmed the front of the trigger assembly a bit. All functions as it should now.
Ted and I decided that Burt should be the first to fire it. We did just that about a month ago. I just did a light load of 3f and damp patch lube so several shots could be easily fired. Burt looked like a kid at Christmas when he shot it off that first time.
Ted left the rifle with me so I can establish a good shooting hunting load for it, which is the reason this is in the range report section. I finally got out and shot it yesterday.
The first target was 50 yards, 70 grains of Goex 3f, a .490 Hornady RB, and a .015” cotton patch hand lubed with Frontiers patch lube. The low right shot was the foul shot. I made a sight adjustment and then fired 3 more. I swabbed between shots with one damp and one dry patch.
I upped the charge to 75 grains and shot 6 more times. I felt myself pull the left most shot, but am not sure about the other one out of the group. The other 4 shots made a ragged hole.
The rear sight has no windage adjustment, so when I got home I drifted the front sight to the right a bit after cleaning the rifle.
I think it’s going to be a shooter.
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