CVA Electra ML accident

[MrTom]

I'm sorry but this just rubs me on a couple levels. Electricity and black powder ignition are just not a good idea. Demolition experts don't do the final wiring until AFTER all the holes are filled and caps are in place, why would a gun be any different? I just feel that some things in life just don't belong....like a gun with electronic ignition. The second thing is that while the injury is terrible it must be worse realizing how stupid it was to buy an electric gun. I'd like to say I feel sorry for the bloke but this was totally preventable and I don't.

 

[snapbang]

Sometimes someone thinks they have a better idea. (and maybe they do) Study the idea for yourself to see if it really is. Ask some what if questions.

 

[Muley Hunter]

What I never understood was how did that gun even work? They say electricity won't ignite black powder. I remember an article years ago I read and I just found it.

https://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I believe that gun had an early Bergara barrel and was said to be very accurate. Maybe it could be converted to percussion or cut up and the barrel used for something else.

 

[Dwayne]

A whole lot of misinformation in this thread.
1. It doesnt take 60 seconds for it to be ready to fire. With a used battery it takes about 12 seconds to charge.

2. As soon as you turn on the gun, there is a red warning light. This light stays on solid until fully charged, about 12 seconds.

3. When fully charged, the red light blinks. It can be shot almost any time when the red warning light is on.

4. When turned off, it is impossible to fire the gun.

5. I do not know the trigger pull, but my guess would be around 1.5 pounds.

6. After firing the gun automatically turns on the safety.

7. It is one of the safest guns to shoot.

This guy turned on the gun and fired it with the red warning light on. It is the only way it can be fired. That is like loading you percussion gun, putting a #11cap in it, pulling back the hammer two clicks, and deeming it safe to point it at your foot.

The whole story is total bs. He did a accidental discharge and wants to blame someone else instead of owning up to it.

 

[Dwayne]

What I never understood was how did that gun even work? They say electricity won't ignite black powder. I remember an article years ago I read and I just found it.

https://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/sparks/sparks.html

The article is right. Electricity will not ignite bp. What the electra does, is use a capacitor to store energy. It releases the energy like a sparkplug in a car. That spark is extremely hot compared to wires touching from a battery or something similar. The breech plug of a electra is actually a sparkplug. It works exactly like your car sparkplug works.

 

[Dwayne]

I doubt if it burnef up two igniters. You gotta force the battery in backwards. It would take some doing to do that.
I place my bet on someone removing the board that is located in front of the trigger and playing around.
Cva knows it and probably decided he was to much of a hazard to own one.

That gun will not fire unless that gun is turned on. Even if the gun is fully charged, it will not fire if turned off.

 

[dwm]

A whole lot of misinformation in this thread.
1. It doesnt take 60 seconds for it to be ready to fire. With a used battery it takes about 12 seconds to charge.

2. As soon as you turn on the gun, there is a red warning light. This light stays on solid until fully charged, about 12 seconds.

3. When fully charged, the red light blinks. It can be shot almost any time when the red warning light is on.

4. When turned off, it is impossible to fire the gun.

5. I do not know the trigger pull, but my guess would be around 1.5 pounds.

6. After firing the gun automatically turns on the safety.

7. It is one of the safest guns to shoot.

This guy turned on the gun and fired it with the red warning light on. It is the only way it can be fired. That is like loading you percussion gun, putting a #11cap in it, pulling back the hammer two clicks, and deeming it safe to point it at your foot.

The whole story is total bs. He did a accidental discharge and wants to blame someone else instead of owning up to it.

you may be correct, otherwise he would be pursuing a law suit

 

[SuperKirby]

I’m gonna guess they’re both somewhat right. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the gun malfunctioned, but it had to be loaded in the house (and turned on according to him) and I assume he figured he would make a run for it to get out of the house. To me it doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility that at that point the gun malfunctioned.
On the other hand, it had burned up two capacitors. How did those get fixed? Seems odd that CVA would fix it twice and send it back telling him it was fine. I’m gonna guess either the gun was a turd, they offered him a replacement and he insisted on keeping it or else he fancied himself a repair man and fixed it himself, only obviously not very well.
Either way, sucks he lost his foot but when you play stupid games you win stupid prizes. It would be interesting to know what actually happened though.

 

[52Bore]

I noticed this posted yesterday.
No doubt he made same basic safety errors.

 

[Muley Hunter]

I'm old school and want a hammer. I know if the hammer isn't pulled back the gun can't fire.

 

[ShaunJ]

I did not share the gruesome photos.

Where can we read this article in full with the attached pictures? I'm definitely intrigued. And I was actually considering buying one of those guns last year, after the primer shortage in my area.

 

[HV-Muzzleloaders]

I doubt if it burnef up two igniters. You gotta force the battery in backwards. It would take some doing to do that.
I place my bet on someone removing the board that is located in front of the trigger and playing around.
Cva knows it and probably decided he was to much of a hazard to own one.

That gun will not fire unless that gun is turned on. Even if the gun is fully charged, it will not fire if turned off.

Are you making the assumption that electrical switches do not fail?

I have a single shot 50 BMG that uses a 4 oz switch for the trigger.
We do not load it until it is pointed down range.

 

[Dwayne]

I own one, and i know how it is made electronically and how it works. It cannot fire if turned off.
This guy got caught with his pants down.
1. He turned it on.
2. It charged up. And NO it doesnt take 60 seconds. I purposely timed mine with a battery that has been fired probably 30 times and is at least 3 years old.
3. He pulled the trigger or maybe clothes snagged the trigger.
4. He never turned it off.

He lied. He is cya on his own negligence.

If you knew how the electrical system worked, you would understand. This is how false rumers get started. People who are clueless about a gun post wrong info that they are clueless about and from there it is a ever-expanding wrongful info.

So yes, i know a lot about this gun and how it works.

If the trigger switch fails, it cannot fire. If the on/off switch fails, it cannot fire. The red LED is not attached to either trigger or on/off switch.

This guy knows darn well he cant win a lawsuit. He did get a new gun out of it, but i think that was a public relationship move, which was smart.

One of the greatest things about the electra, it is the only gun that i know of that has ZERO locktime.

 

[Dwayne]

I'm old school and want a hammer. I know if the hammer isn't pulled back the gun can't fire.

Are you sure sure about that?

 

[Muley Hunter]

Are you sure sure about that?

Yes, in a sidelock.

 

[phalanx]

I also own 2 of these guns and bought them because as an Electronics Engineer/Radar guy I was intrigued with the concept. I wasn't there when it went bang or the steps leading up to it but I tend to agree with SuperKirby....things not right on both ends. Electrical circuits can fail and there should be failsafes within the circuit to prevent this from occurring but even failsafes can go bad My wife is a System Safety engineer and she constantly gives me examples of failures, even ones that have three levels of safety built in. Can't imagine CVA's lawyers allowing sales if the risk was too high that a fault would permit/enable the gun to fire so it must have been considered "safe" and I am certain they did "what if" reviews prior to marketing. Dwayne's discussion of the circuit is correct but I never felt comfortable pouring powder down the barrel with the battery in so I never hunted with mine. Maybe if I carried my Optima pistol as a second shot it might work for me Ultimately its up to us that own this type of gun what we want to do with them. I currently just don't know.

John

 

[Dwayne]

There is one safety feature that is not reliable on the electra, and that is the safety itself. I contacted cva years ago on this problem.

How the safety works:
Safe is when the black switch on top is pulled back towards you. Fire is when the black switch is pushed forward. It has a mechanical switch.

When you fire, the trigger is pulled back, contact electrical Contact is made, gun fires, the mechanical lever releases its grip and the switch falls into safe mode. The mechanical switch does not work by electricity. It is like a light switch on the wall with spring activation.

Since the trigger is very light, and with zero locktime, if you have a very light trigger finger, you can actually aim, pull the trigger, and when the gun goes off, the recoil will pull the gun away from your finger, keeping the auto safety from being reset.

In other words, the gun fires and instead of the trigger going back from your pull, it goes back enough to fire the gun, but not far enough back to activate safety. Why? Because recoil takes your finger off the trigger before it hits reset safety.

The problem with that? Since the gun starts to recharge the second after it is fired. If you do not check the safety to make sure it is on, you are dumping powder and ammo in a hot gun that is charged , ready to fire with a hair trigger ,and no safety.

 

[Dwayne]

Yes, in a sidelock.

I have seen a fully loaded percussion with live cap and the hammer resting on it. Some brush pull the hammer not even to the first click and boom.

Had to show someone that if you do that kind of thing, put a spent cap on the nipple. It will keep the moisture out. When it comes time, switch out the cap.

Personally i think they got excited, loaded, never took the shot, and forgot they placed a live cap under the closed hammer.

 

[Muley Hunter]

I have seen a fully loaded percussion with live cap and the hammer resting on it. Some brush pull the hammer not even to the first click and boom.

Had to show someone that if you do that kind of thing, put a spent cap on the nipple. It will keep the moisture out. When it comes time, switch out the cap.

Personally i think they got excited, loaded, never took the shot, and forgot they placed a live cap under the closed hammer.

Yes, but the hammer was still pulled back. I always put a guard over the loaded nipple. So, if what you described happened it still couldn't fire. When I needed to take a shot I could just slip off the guard and shoot. The guard was tied to the trigger guard, so could slip it off and drop it.

It was the easiest way I could come up with that was still safe. As a still hunter I needed the gun ready to shoot fast. Of course I was holding the gun in both hands ready to shoot. If I was carrying the gun on a sling the cap was off.