I have an old CVA muzzleloader my folks game me when I was 12, the stock is old and very cheap, the barrel was neglected for 4 years while I was in the military so it could do to be replaced probably. I'll keep the originals of course, but I was thinking of replacing the stock and the barrel. The problem is I don't know where to find an in letted stock or replacement barrel and ramrod, does anyone recommend a starting point, or possible hurdles I would have to overcome? it is currently a percussion .50 cal. do I have the option of going to a .54? or should I stick with a .50? rate of twist? I'd like to shoot sabots or conicals with it. I'm also open to Ideas if anyone has them. what would you do?

If you want to shoot sabots and conicals, you'll be better off with a .50 Caliber, much better selection and really no need to go bigger. 28 Twist is the standard for those. I'm not familiar with CVA barrels, but Green Mountain had a good selection for TCs last time I checked.

I'm sure they are all kinda standard, I'll look at the green mountain.

any advice on wood? I'm not really patient when it comes to inletting or shaping. finishing is no problem, I'm just not a sculptor by any means

green mountains website shows all the .50's with a 1:70" twist, seems awful slow

what Rifle do you have Colorado ?

as to the barrel . there is more to it then just shopping for a barrel . see what you chose must also be fit to your stock or a new stock built for it . so even if you buy a new barrel that is the same across the flats as the one you have ., it must then be breeched to fit your stock OR breech to fit your tang if it�s a hooked breech . Also all underlugs must match .
If you cant do that yourself then you must look for a drop in barrel for your specific rifle . IE what rifle do you have . TC , CVA , Traditions , Pedersoli, Navy Arms�� and what model .

Now as to wood for a new stock .
that�s simple , Maple be it red , big leaf , or either of the two hard maples or Walnut , English , black or any number of European walnuts

Where to get it . Well your saying your probably wouldn�t be patient enough for inletting so that then reduces your choices to pre-carves . Which then must be made to fit all your parts on your gun .
So again we are back to what gun you have . There are a few places that make replacement stocks for TC�s and some of the Pedersoli . but few to non who make replacements for the others . However there are many who make pre carves . But your going to have to inlet the parts .

if you use your same barrel or a drop in barrel . You could just send your stock to a custom stock maker and have them duplicate your stock in your choice of wood . But even then you will have to do the final fitting as most times they don�t


So that takes you to a custom maker to make you a stock and since your thinking of a new barrel , really build you a new gun in whats called �In the White � using a new barrel and your other parts .
. I do that , in fact I do that a lot . But it costs and I will tell you up front it would be next year before I could get even consider taking another customer , im just that far behind .

But here are some of my custom restocks.
This is a restock Jukar Kentucky rifle . With new lock and triggers




here is a CVA MT rifle stock that i did

I understand the attachment to your old rifle, but you'd be better off hunting down another CVA like yours and scavenging the parts you need. I don't know of anyone that offers finish inletted replacement stocks for CVA. Ditto for the barrel. You can screw a new one on your old breech plug/tang but you will have to set it up for the stock wedges/pins, sight dovetails and ramrod thimbles. Basicaly you would be building a custom rifle around your old lock. Track of the Wolf offer all kinds of barrels and stocks but nothing drop in for your CVA.

Track of the Wolf

10-4, all I needed to know!
I'll stick with the inlines and throw this thing in the closet.
thanks guys.

Beautiful!

Deer Creek Products out of indiana will have the stuff you need plus they are not expensive for a new barrel depending what model you have and if they still have the barrel available.

OH NO, don't walk into the light!

I kill around 8-10 deer a year with inline muzzleloaders, this one would be one to hand down to my son and use it every so often when I want to go traditional. accuracy with it is so-so now. I have killed a few deer with it in the past though.

I bet if you clean it up you'll find it shoots just fine. A CVA isn't worth putting much work or money into. The locks and triggers are crummy. Just clean it up and shoot it.

Here is good advice. Some years back Deer Creek bought the existing CVA inventory and may have the exact factory parts you are looking for. It is a mom and pop operation with one phone line, so be patient when calling. I lost their phone number when I got a new phone and all my numbers did not transfer. Tech support at CVA is where I got their number to begin with.

yep i would bet Deer Creek would have the needed parts .

But then if your going to be replacing the locks or triggers , your going to be replacing them with the same parts which as was mentioned , are often lacking in quality
As to what a given brand is worth or not , that�s up to the person who owns it and what their value is . Often times with these its not just about a monetary value . a lot of times the guns were kits and put together by dads and sons . Other times its folks first gun .
Still other times it is monetary as the gun was bough cheep . The one I posted of the Jukar Kentucky restock was purchased for 5 .00 after the PO got fed up with un reliable ignition and was ready to chuck it down a hill . When it did fire , it was very accurate . So the owner bought it . Brought it to me to rebuild . New stock made from a blank . Sliding patch box , new lock , davis triggers labor and shipping 2 ways and he is still into it far less then the cost of a completed semi custom piece and only slightly more then the cost of buying the parts to make a semi custom.

The biggest cost is shop time in making the stock . which if I can ever get a break long enough ill have the remedied as well . But if a person can make their own stock they wouldn�t be into a cost anymore then buying say a new Traditions rifle and you get much better parts ..

So again it depends on what someone wants to do . Really no different then sinking a few hundred into rebuilding a 150.00 inline OR for that mater doing any real amount of shooting from one

I'd try refinishing the stock and cleaning up the barrel first and see how it looks and shoots. Depending on how that goes I'd look at Track of the Wolf and Dixie gun works for parts. Might have to look elsewhere too depending on what ya need. Davis makes some good replacement triggers that should drop in a CVA. If you end up getting a new barrel I would go .54.

Davis doesnt make a trigger set that will drop into any CVA ,Jukar, Traditions .... you will eather have to modify the trigger plate or the inlet .
also depending on the rifle , you may end up changing the trigger guard

never had any trouble with a trigger on a cva sidelock nor the lock, unless it was a flintlock and even then it was just a simple matter of rehardening a frizzen.

Telling a guy to replace triggers,lock, refinish his stock is just wasting his money without knowing what the real problem is with the rifle.

Hell, If I knew what model it was I'd offer to buy it and redo it for myself.

That stinks. I know they will drop into a Lyman. The Davis site is pretty vague on what others they will fit in.

I agree. Without pictures or more information though, I would go the route of doing things myself rather than going out and buying a whole bunch of new parts.

i dont recal him saying what rifle he had unless its in another thread somewhere. nore metioning anything other then possable issues with the barrel

What rifle is it?

The original post mentions a CVA and the stock age and quality in addition to the barrel unless you are referring to something else.

yes it did and im asking what rifle it is ?
is it a CVA mountain rifle. is it a CVA ,St Lewis ,Hawkens of which both take different stocks . Is it any number of other 1/2 stock rifles that CVA made through the years that were available in 50. Some with double set triggers , some without . In some cases the parts from a Mt . or Hawk rifle will fit those other stock , some times not
Or as in the case with the St Lewis , which came in kits with both a 50 and a 54 cal barrel. Thus making the 54 a little easier to find .
Is it a bobcat or one of its predecessors which would then place the possibility of finding a fast twist barrel of 1 in 32 , 1 in 48 or 1 in 60 as an option for a possible barrel and twist .

Bigbock . im very surprised you have never had an issue with the locks or triggers .

The triggers are not to troublesome . Most times if someone has an issue with the double sets its do to having the trigger set to light in which case it wont work OE the tension spring on the front trigger which frankly was little better then a paper clip in quality . It was easily bent and thus would not provide enough upward pressure to allow the rear trigger to engage in the set position .

The locks . Well lets see , soft lock plate which was often times bent when folks over tightened the lock screws . Main springs that would go dead at a drop of the hat and thus need replacing . Often times even brand new they were weak and had just enough pressure to set off the cap . If someone dry fired the gun and the nipple spread , you then ran into the double fall issues that are so often ask about .
Or once the nipple began to where the gun would experience blow back resulting in the wibblie , wobbly hammer on the tumbler .
Hammers on the smaller locks ,that were soft enough they would get easily bent . Thus be out of alignment with the nipple .. The flintlock suffered from the same things but also had issues with the frizzen being dead and or cocks bending

have a cva hawken thats only a few years younger than me, all original and still shoots perfect. I did have to replace the sear about 9-10 years ago though. Over tightening the lock screws is common and can cause the hammer to hold up, pretty much a softer wood issue. Over tightening the lock screws also can slow down the hammer fall, resulting in a click, instead of a bang.

Only issue I had with my hawken was when I found the trigger had been inletted to deeply and was hitting the sear bar, not allowing the trigger to be set. After bedding the trigger plate and tang, all was perfect. No more troubles with the tang screw loosening either with heavy loads.

The few that I have never any problems yet.

I'm guessing it's a hawken, doesn't say on the barrel or anywhere else. has the brass patch holder on the stock, stock goes midway down the barrel, has 2 wedges in the forearm holding it together. brass crescent buttplate, double triggers.
other than that I don't know how to identify it as to a specific model.

sounds like a mountain rifle. If you'd interested in selling it I'd be interested.

Does it look something like this?

I could just as easy build a new rifle from scratch, but this one my dad gave me for christmas when I was 12.
also meaning no way in hell you could buy it from me

I do like the idea of stripping the finish and maybe staining it, the wood looks like a monotone yellow and is very bland. I'd like to keep as much of it original if possible. does anyone rebore muzzleloaders? I would like to keep the original barrel and rebore to a .54 if I could. I know it doesn't make much sense form a cost standpoint, but that's not what I am concerned with the most. yes a new build may be cheaper, it's the nostalgic value I'm after.

yes it looks very similar to that only in worse shape

no way I'd sell, my ma&pa gave it to me

yeah reboring would cost more than a new barrel lol. If your're interested it restoring it I could certainly be of help if you dont feel like doing it yourself. I actually have a mountain rifle coming in for playing with before I strip it down and refinish it. They are really addicting once you get them cleaned up and shooting. Super accurate rifles, my Hawken wears the MR barrel but in 58cal.

my dad said he bought it from a guy who used it for competition, I've seen it shoot good groups but never really explored all it had to offer. I appreciate the offer, I'll let you know what I decide to do

if it were me , i would first clean up the barrel and then drop a bore light down and see what you actually have as far as damage . a little frosting shouldn�t hurt anything really . If you want it gone , proper lapping can often take care of that .
If a 54 is a must have , then you have a couple options that would preserve your personal value .
IMO order of cost would be .
1) would watch for a 54 cal CVA Hawkens barrel and have it re lugged to fit you stock . Doing that is no big deal .
2)go to Deer creek and buy one of their barrels for that rifle in 54
3) buy a custom barrel , . Have it breeched , under lugs put on , a proper under rib and a new standing breech made that will fit your current inlet .
4) have it re rifled to a 54 cal . I have had Ed Rayl re rifle barrels for me . He does very good work , but he also is very busy so a long wait . You might give Robert Hoyt a call and see what he would charge His phone # 717-642-6696
Im glad to hear your not interested in selling it . Good on you . Every buddy and their brother seems to be after the Mt rifles these days and the prices just keep climbing even if they are in bad shape and especially if they are an older one with a US marked barrel
I have worked on these guns all my life . I know them very well .

PS another idea might if the bore is in real bad shape , would be to have it bored to a smooth bore and then get you a rifled barrel . Then you would have the option of both a shotgun and a rifle from the same gun you dad gave you .
Again 2 thumbs up on keeping it

mine has the US marked barrel. I think what I'll do is clean it up really well, maybe refinish the stock and stain it a little, it is very yellow/pale looking. I do wish it had a little faster twist so I could shoot sabots accurately. would a 1:48 twist stabilize a 230 grain saboted hollow point?

The I in 48 stabilized 240 and 250 grain saboted loads in my Renegade. Except the sights would not go low enough for the lighter recoiling loads. i put a pistol scope on it, so it was not an issue.

Got news for you, that USA made barrel is a slow twist barrel made for patched round balls. It should be 1:66 twist if its marked USA.

it is, I thought it said 1-48 but I just checked and it doesn't say a twist at all.
I have a round ball mould, I might just clean it up, refinish the stock and oil it well and put it away with my indian made possibles bag, mold and antler powder measurer.

There is a "new" in the white .58 cal CVA Hawken barrel listed on Gunbroker.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=400717958

thats actually for a mountain rifle but can be used on the hawken if it has a 1" barrel channel or you're willing to open up the channel a little with a sanding block. Also will have to relocate the barrel tenon and cut a new slot for it. Not huge, I've done 2 of them for my hawken and someone elses i built the rifle for.