Quite mad at CVA.

[JimG]

About had my fill with CVA. Here's why. A few months ago my truck was broken in to and my H-R Huntsman was stolen along with a few other items. After a few weeks I gave up on ever recovering my property so I bought a new CVA Optima with a camo stock and stainless steel fluted barrel. Must of been a 2010 model as the barrel had sights on it. Dissassembled the rifled to clean the barrel out good before I took it to the club to shoot it and found that the fore-end was cracked in the hinge area. Called CVA and requested a replacement fore-end. They shipped one. It would not fit on the rifle. Figured out that the trunnion was to far back on the barrel to allow good fit. There are slots for minor adjustment fore and aft but it was already all the way foreward. Called CVA. After some arm twisting they e-mailed me a 'call tag' so that I would not have to pay shipping back to CVA. They finally shipped the rifle back to me this week. Their 'fix' was to grind a lot of material away from the trunnion to allow for proper fit of the fore-end. Looks like a hurry up and get it out the door job but I suppose it does 'fix' the problem. Problem was this fore-end was cracked as well. Called CVA yet again. Explained the problem yet again. They overnighted me a new fore-end. It will not fit the rifle at all. Oh and it is cracked as well, just in a different spot this time. All I can say is what the #$%&! I had suggested that they replace the barrel as it likely was improperly fitted to the frame at the factory but they elected not to. So deer season is apon us here in IL and I have no ML to use at this point and time. However I was contacted a couple of weeks ago by LEO's about my Huntsman and it's now back in my possesion minus the scope, rings, base, butt stock and fore-end and the needed hardware to attatch the stock set. So I'm on a hunt to quickly located a black plastic Huntsman ML fore-end. If I locate one I might be able to get sighted in just in time to hunt. But what the heck is up with CVA???? I know some folks like them and I WAS on the fence about CVA's quality but this is unacceptable.

 

[Hornet22savage]

Well I'm glad to hear you got some of your stuff back even if it was not complete. Its unfortunate about CVA's customer service or lack there of in your case. I have not dealt with them but for a while looked real hard at purchasing an Optima, Accura or even an Apex. I settled on my KRB I just can not get away frm these Knight's. I also will say its all in who you know the people that have good expirences with customer service either have a lot of contact with them or know somebody in the company. Good Luck to you.

 

[JimG]

I should add that in all fairness CVA has been apologetic about everything. But I need function, not apologies. I was not mad until after I received the rifle back from CVA and it was still not right. Hey sometimes mistakes are made, but darn it anyhow fix the mistake! As for the Huntsman, I had just received it back from Remington after the Huntsman barrel was fitted to my H-R rifle frame. So I did not even have time to really work up a good load. I had shot it and it appeared to have potential but I needed to work with it further. So the jerk not only took my ML, he in a way also took my .243 because I needed the stolen frame to use my .243! One of the dangers of multi-barreled single shot frames. Something happens to the frame and all of the barrels then become useless.

 

[Muley Hunter]

I'm trying to think what i'd do in your situation.

I think I would have hunted with the Optima, and then sent it back for another repair. I would of course tell CVA what I was going to do.

Did the crack keep the gun from working?

 

[cayuga]

A very interesting post. I never thought of that problem with a Optima. I am glad to hear you got some of your property back, but there is again ... someone steals things from you and it screws up your entire hunt. Sorry to hear that.

 

[JimG]

The crack just gets worse the more you open the action and close it regarding the crack in the hinge area. So yes it a way it would effect the use of the rifle. Now the new fore-end with the crack in the bottom of the fore-end, well let's just say it probably won't effect the usage but at this point I'm too irratated to deal with it. When I first got rifle, the 'ears' for lack of a better term of the fore-end that fit over the frame in the inset area where actually pushed back at least 1/8" to 5/32" past the inset area. I did not notice this in the store before the purchase. So something is not right.

 

[Muley Hunter]

I'd ask for a new gun.