Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Cva optima fired on its own

Today my father was getting out of his truck, and going to walk into his ground blind. He placed his gun on his front seat after placing a primer in it. Around 25 seconds later while no one was touching it the gun fired into the dash. Thank god my father nor his friend were injured by this. Although it did take out part of the wiring harness of the truck and It will not start now. The gun was not cocked, and in no way modified. It has been properly maintained. Has this been a recent issue with these guns. I am not asking about the older guns that had issues so please refrain from talking about those. Very concerned about the safety of this gun. It is actually my backup muzzleloader, and makes me very nervous and concerned. I am going to call cva Monday morning. Any idea what they will do? I know they will not repair the truck, but what will they do about the gun issue? Any suggestions?

The gun was not cocked and went off that's a new one glad to hear no one was injured in any way.

Could the firing pin become stuck and release on it's own. I was not there for the incident, but he told me he placed the primer in the gun, which will not close if it is cocked, and sat it down and walked to the back of the truck when it went off without anyone within a few feet of it. Said the gun did not fall or anything. What would you do if this happened to you?

Was the primer punched by the firing pin?

May seem like an odd question, but it had to ignite from the primer. If it wasn't punched then I am wondering if friction or electrical impulse may have ignited the primer. Never heard of it happening but this seems odd.

The firing pin may have been stuck as mentioned, then released on it's own..

Also wondering if it may have partially cocked the hammer on the seat when put into the car and slowly pulled lose allowing the hammer to fall...

Crazy stuff, glad no one was hurt.

If the headspace is set too tight, or a longer primer is used that's different from when the headspace was set. It will crush the primer, and it can go off. This is a known issue with CVA's.

However, it goes off when the barrel is slammed shut. Not sure it could happen 25 seconds later.

I had the same thing happen to me ,but mine was a kodiak the firepin was stuck would take 2or 3 shots to go off. The fireing pin was with dirt an powder clean with krol oil an oil up with trammission fluid work great now . all parts need a good cleaning once a year on all guns

How can the firing pin fire without the hammer being cocked?

I was able to get gun in hand tonight after my dad made it back to town. I was able to repeat the firing by closing the breach on a primer with no load in barrel. 2 out of 5 times it fired the primer because the firing pin was sticking out barely. Even when u cocked it and pulled the trigger it would not reset the firing pin. Definitely gonna call cva in morning. They will get a ear full because a faulty gun has now caused a couple thousand dollars damage to my fathers f250. Any idea what I should do other than calling them. This gun has been well maintained and used very little since it was a back up. Only 3 years old and never fired until last fall.

Pictures of gun?

Will get pics up tomorrow for you.

How about giving "polite" a try? Tell them what happened, and that you were able to repeat this several times and then .......listen to what they have to say. Don't interrupt or get antagonistic with them.

After that you can decide if you need legal help. DO NOT TRY TO REPAIR THE GUN OR CLEAN THE FIRING PIN OR RELATED MECHANISMS UNTIL THIS IS SETTLED.

Have you unscrewed the firing pin housing, and cleaned and oiled the firing pin? It sounds like it's clogged up.

I would listen to Dan's advice above. At any rate, if it was my rifle, and it did what it did, I wouldn't care whether a good cleaning fixed the problem, the rifle would be going back.

I cleaned firing pin last year after season, and completely again after checking sights this year. I was finally able to get it apart and the spring inside was broke in 3 places. They are sending a new firing pin kit priority mail to fix the issue. According to the rep I spoke with this is not uncommon. I asked for a complete replacement of gun, but was told that was in no way a option. I also cannot sell the gun due to not wanting to get anyone hurt. So not sure what to do with it other than fix it and try it out. May just put it in back of gun safe and buy something else as my backup. At this point I am not sure what exactly caused the failure of the spring as the gun has been well maintained. Not completely satisfied with the customer service, but I am sure they get calls like this every day from guys who do not clean their guns as they should and cannot replace them all. Still trying to fix the problem with the truck. It's a lesson in safety. Just glad no one was injured and only a truck was shot.

I can understand the firing pin binding up if the spring is broke. That's all the spring does is return the firing pin. What confuses me is if the firing pin didn't return like it should and stuck out. It would fire the gun when the action was closed. How did it fire 25 seconds later? Once the action is close, it would take the hammer hitting it to fire.

Confuses me too. I cannot figure that out myself. Since I was not there when it happened I will never truly know. The gun makes me very nervous now, and for good reason I believe. It's going to back of gun safe and will not be sold since I cannot sell a potentially hazardous gun. Oh well.

If the problem is only the spring, maybe you can get an aftermarket or even a custom spring? Seems like a waste not to use the rifle just because of a $20 part.

If this is a common problem with this rifle, it's amazing that CVA won't step up to the plate.

I'm surprised CVA said it was not uncommon. WTF?? CVA doesn't seem to be bothered by lawsuits.

On the Omega I used this year during the Colorado season all of a sudden I couldn't close the breach.

I kept trying to slam it shut before I noticed the firing pin was stuck forward and it was hitting the primer, the primer had a little dent in it, scared me straight.

Glad I read this thread! I have an Optima and I will definatley be watching for this from now on! Scary chit there!

Glad nobody was hurt!