I've been rippin' on CVAs for over 15yrs now.
There you go. Impressive bona fides, I must say! I guess we should all bow down to your greater rippinatude!
Seriously, 2muchgun: if you don't like CVA, more power to you. But if you want to gain any credibility for your assertions regarding CVA, you're gonna have to come up with more evidence than an internet list of lawsuits brought against the company. Any idiot can search a list of "cases" against any manufacturer and compile a list like that. It costs next to nothing to file a lawsuit in America. It costs real money to prosecute one though, and that's why so many are filed and then dropped.
As I said, if you want to get some cred here for your position, you might start with an internet list of lawsuits that CVA has settled or lost. It shouldn't be hard, if there are any.
I recall the highly publicized situation that showed up here on the Campfire and on other internet hunting forums a couple years ago about that guide/outfitter in AZ/Mexico who ripped off a bunch of clients. There was some bleating from his defenders for a time, but within a year there were 4 judgments against the guide granted by an Arizona court. WITHIN A YEAR.
Now, if as you say you've been "rippin' on CVA" for FIFTEEN YEARS, surely you can come up with at least 4 successful judgments against the company, with links to the judgments as published by the courts. Is that too much to ask?
Now that we've got that one-trick pony back in its track, I'd like to respond to the OP.
I've had a CVA Optima Pro rifle for 4 or 5 years and my about-to-be-son-in-law has one as well. Between us we've fired easily 1000+ rounds, which for a muzzleloader, is a LOT of shooting. My Optima "died" when it fell out of a tower stand (the rope I was lowering it with broke) and broke the stock. I ordered and put on a new stock, and it continued to shoot very well. It's a very accurate rifle with my preferred load, a 295 gr Powerbelt bullet loaded over 2 pellets of Jim Shockey's Gold powder. Using that load I put 5 consecutive rounds into a 0.73" group off the bench at 100 yards in my first year using the rifle. Last fall I put 3 rounds into a similar size group just to be sure it still worked. Between shooting those two groups I put 5 whitetail does and one spike buck on the ground at ranges from 40 yards to 225 yards, with one miss that was entirely my fault due to underestimating range. My ATBSIL has put two whitetails down with two shots this fall.
It is easily the best muzzleloader I've ever hunted with. I have to admit I've only hunted with 3 other muzzleloaders, and this was my first in-line. But I've worked with a couple of my friend's Knight rifles, and the CVA is easily its match in terms of accuracy and ergonomics, at less than half the price.
