Been on a bit of a muzzleloader hiatus for a few years now, in fact sold my last inline- an older Knight as it just wasn’t getting used. I’m working on getting more serious on my hunting and had been thinking about picking up another inline. I just love hunting with them.
Skip forward to about 3 weeks ago and the wife wanted to go hit some yard sales so I agreed and at the second stop spied an older black CVA break action laying on the table. I picked it up, looked it over and found what I typically see, it was in fair shape, definitely used, and had some rust on the bore, also quite common. But it was the shorter CVA Wolf which I have always had an eye on since I hunt in East Tennessee woods, as well as a Nikon 4x scope, and it was stainless, a huge bonus. After some more inspection and some price negotiations I picked it up for $100. Definitely a gamble but I felt that what rust I was seeing was mostly surface and would clean up well.
Getting “Stubby” (more on that in a moment) home I was pleasantly surprised the breach plug came out quite easily, the rust cleaned out like I thought it would, and I was getting excited about it. However, I new there was something still not quite right. It was drilled and tapped for the rear sight but there was nothing on the muzzle end, plus the whole gun, including scope had been spray painted black.
I pastor a church and was describing this gun to one of my members who also hunts. He looked at me puzzled and said “That sounds like the gun my neighbor had” and he described it to a tee, including muttering something about the owner taking a drill bit to the barrel. My heart began to sink, “What on earth had this neighbor done, and would it be able to shoot well?” Finally after some more conversation I figured out that the neighbor had in fact taken a drill bit to the muzzle in an effort to counter bore it for the easy loading like the newer ones have. He didn’t do it so well and took it to a gunsmith who wound up cutting off the last 2” of the barrel, counter-boring the last 1” of the barrel, as well as re-crowning the barrel. Hence, the name “stubby” as I now have a 22” barreled, black painted, stainless, CVA Wolf with a 4x Nikon scope.
Range tests came back good as it shot just fine, 2” group at 100 yards with the Traditions TPF bullet and some 50/50 Pyrodex pellets (all I could find locally since season had just started). I think with some time, and probably some loose powder load development it will shoot just fine. Besides it has a great history and will be a convenient short muzzleloader for these thick East TN woods.
It’s good to be back and I hope to kill something with it this coming Friday when I get to go hunt.
Charles Shepherd
Skip forward to about 3 weeks ago and the wife wanted to go hit some yard sales so I agreed and at the second stop spied an older black CVA break action laying on the table. I picked it up, looked it over and found what I typically see, it was in fair shape, definitely used, and had some rust on the bore, also quite common. But it was the shorter CVA Wolf which I have always had an eye on since I hunt in East Tennessee woods, as well as a Nikon 4x scope, and it was stainless, a huge bonus. After some more inspection and some price negotiations I picked it up for $100. Definitely a gamble but I felt that what rust I was seeing was mostly surface and would clean up well.
Getting “Stubby” (more on that in a moment) home I was pleasantly surprised the breach plug came out quite easily, the rust cleaned out like I thought it would, and I was getting excited about it. However, I new there was something still not quite right. It was drilled and tapped for the rear sight but there was nothing on the muzzle end, plus the whole gun, including scope had been spray painted black.
I pastor a church and was describing this gun to one of my members who also hunts. He looked at me puzzled and said “That sounds like the gun my neighbor had” and he described it to a tee, including muttering something about the owner taking a drill bit to the barrel. My heart began to sink, “What on earth had this neighbor done, and would it be able to shoot well?” Finally after some more conversation I figured out that the neighbor had in fact taken a drill bit to the muzzle in an effort to counter bore it for the easy loading like the newer ones have. He didn’t do it so well and took it to a gunsmith who wound up cutting off the last 2” of the barrel, counter-boring the last 1” of the barrel, as well as re-crowning the barrel. Hence, the name “stubby” as I now have a 22” barreled, black painted, stainless, CVA Wolf with a 4x Nikon scope.
Range tests came back good as it shot just fine, 2” group at 100 yards with the Traditions TPF bullet and some 50/50 Pyrodex pellets (all I could find locally since season had just started). I think with some time, and probably some loose powder load development it will shoot just fine. Besides it has a great history and will be a convenient short muzzleloader for these thick East TN woods.
It’s good to be back and I hope to kill something with it this coming Friday when I get to go hunt.
Charles Shepherd
