Sorted through my reloading supplies and found a couple hundred old 44 mag JHP reloads, 300 empty brass and a couple thousand 200 and 300 hard cast bullets. Only problem is nothing to shoot them in.
My neighbor bought a CVA Hunter in 44 mag a couple years ago for his boys and it has proven to be a very accurate little rig. His boys have taken deer out to 100+ yards. At just over $200, I decided to get one myself.
Unfortunately, I couldn't locate one. I did find one Scout about an hour and a half away so I made a road trip this morning.
Got it home, cleaned the bore, added loctite to the mount screws and mounted a new Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40. Tried some of the JHP reloads and it was terrible. 6" groups at 65 yards! 44 Special reloads with 200g cast was no better.
Hoping it's just the scope. Under magnification the crown is not very clean but I wouldn't think it's bad enough to cause such inaccuracy.
I'll start sorting through it tomorrow but it doesn't look promising.

Obviously check the scope and mounts. My CVA Hunter will do a lot better than that. 240g JSP and 300g JSP both shoot about 2-2.5" at 100 yards for 5 shots off the bench.

Good luck figuring it out.

Oh, and off the bench, make sure to rest the rifle on the bags up under the action, not out on the fore end too far. Rested up on the action or offhand with mine is fine, but pressure out on the stock gave me flyers.

Yeah, they are picky about front rest placement.
I had one. I got it to do alright with 240 Deep Curls pushed at max. Maybe 1.5" at 100 average.
On a state hunting forum a few guys have mentioned those are throated really long. So they do best seated with the OAL out more, but then you can't crimp heavy, cause no groove.

You don't need a very heavy crimp on ammo you use in a single shot.

I have that rifle in 44 magnum. It would always group two rounds nearly touching and a third one off quite a bit. I ended up switching out scopes and haven't shot it since.

Hard cast lead...phfft

Tightened up the forearm. Didn't know it was something that could be done until I noticed the screws under th forearm and read the manual.

Loaded some test rounds with several different cast and jacketed bullets with charges of 2400 low to high. OAL out to 1.73".
Various rest positions including under the receiver.

No improvement.

Next up is the scope. I have several to choose from but doubt if I'll have time today.

You don't like shooting cast? Why?

Could be a lot of things. I'd try a few jacketed bullets right up against the lands, with the bell taken out of the mouth, and see how they shoot. Check your bore first to see if you've got leading. Cast bullets, if of a hard alloy and too small, will make a right mess, particularly in a rough new bore.

I didn't say that I don't like cast, just shot some earlier today.





What I have no use for is hard cast bullets.

I have two of the CVA single shots. One in 243, and another in 223 Both shoot MOA, and outshot most Ruger #1 rifles.

I shot it again two weeks ago. It's still bad. It's either the gun or my loads for it. I am going to buy a Henry.

Man, you have me leery of recommending the CVA in 44mag to friends. My Hunter shoots under 2" at 100 with 240 and 300 XTPs and 240 JSPs but I wonder if mine is the exception to the rule.

Is it the third shot that leaves the group? If so, it is quite common on rifles with two piece stocks. I had an H&R that did that as the barrel heated.

I think Paul is the exception to the rule. He is a "cooler", but for guns.

thats what my H&R did. i got it dialed in for a first shot hit on a cold bore. if i let the bore COMPLETELY cool off between shots, it would stack them at 100 yds. if not, it would immediately start to walk.

I know this thread is kind of old but it’s new and very relevant to me. I’ve been trying to get a CVA Scout 44 mag to shoot well for about 6 months now. I finally stopped loading pistol rounds and loaded them for a rifle (I seated to bullet out closer to the lands) and got my best groups ever with it. Newly encouraged, I loaded up 15 more and those groups were crap again. I’ve tried lots of different powders, six or more different bullets sized from .429 to .432 and nothing seems to work. Mounts are tight, 2nd different scope but I might try one more before I decide to sell it. If that doesn’t work, maybe I should call CVA…

I slugged the muzzle end and it came out .427. Is it possible for a bore to be too tight?

I was interested in the Scout in .444, a real bargain on the surface. Maybe not so much….

I had one and just like you said- erratic. One range time would produce good groups. Next time- same loads and it shot like crap. Got it primarily as a youth gun, but no way I'd put a youth hunter behind that with those results.

You can try fiddling with the forend adjustments. I thought that helped some for a while, but not really.
Also, that gun seemed picky as hell about front rest placement when shooting.

Finally had enough and sent it down the road. Had one in 450 BM before that. That one was similar, but also had the problem of a rimless case which does not mesh well with their extractor setup.

What 30 caliber round gets 1042 fps with only 7.6 grains of 4759?

Separate question

Fore end rest

Where is the best place to rest the fore end for greatest precision downrange?

What weight JHP are you shooting? My Henry single shot doesn't like 180 gr bullets but loves 240 gr bullets.

I’ve had the best luck on break actions putting the rest as close to the pivot point as I could. I also hold the forearm, but try not to induce any torque by pulling it side to side or down.

I wouldn't give up on the CVA Scout in 444 Marlin. I too once owned a CVA Scout in 44 Mag and accuracy was poor. I used Winchester White Box 240 gr SP, which was very accurate in my Ruger semiauto and, unfortunately, neither this brand of ammo nor a couple others that I tried were good in the CVA. At the distances at which I typically shoot deer/hogs, the CVA was probably accurate enough but I still wanted something better. So, a couple of years ago I bought a CVA Scout V2 stainless with 25" barrel and muzzle break in 444 Marlin. This was a vast improvement over the CVA Scout in 44 Mag. Accuracy is exceptional (especially with Hornady's 265gr FP bullet) either handloaded or using Hornady's Superperformance ammo w/the same bullet. This has become my main deer/hog hunting weapon. Also, the factory trigger is very good. I cannot comment on other rifles but I am well pleased with CVA's V2 Scout. I understand CVA makes another version of the Scout in 444 Marlin without the muzzle break but I don't have any experience with these.

I was at the range yesterday with my relatively new Traditions Outfitter G3 in 44mag. Up until yesterday I'd been sighting it with a red dot, only shooting at 50 yards and was fairly consistently getting 1.25-1.5" groups. Because my vision isn't great in my shooting eye, I never see the red dot as a crystal clear dot; more like a star flare. However I managed. But I wanted to try it out at 100yds and would never be able to see the target clearly enough with the red dot for that to work, so I mounted a Leupold VX-3i 1.5-5 on it.

Once I got it sighted in at 50 yards, I moved out to 100 and first chronographed my load; 1925fps avg with 265gr Hornady FP with an ES of only 30fps over 5 shots fired less than a minute apart; a stout load but apparently consistent. OAL is extended out .140" so that the bullet is just off the lands.

I had 40 rounds loaded, all the same. The plan was to confirm the load performed well and was sighted in for 150yd zero, then put them away for hunting season. Suffice to say, I fired almost all of them trying to figure out why they were stringing vertically so dramatically. We're talking going from zero'd to as much as 8 inches high over 3 shots at 100 yards. Horizontal zero was spectacularly consistent and dead on with first two shots of one group touching, but I've never seen such extreme vertical stinging!

I think I've concluded that the stringing is likely due to the barrel heating up quite quickly and affecting pressure on the barrel from the forearm, which is bolted to it with a single bolt. I think it's unlikely that it's the scope because every time I would make an up/down adjustment chasing the stringing, the impact of the first shot of a new group would move accordingly. I also have a lot of confidence in the consistency of Leupold scopes based on many year's experience.

Because this rifle is intended to be an all-weather bush gun for hunting, it's really only the first shot being absolutely reliable that I actually care about, but I'd like to be able to prove to myself that my theory is correct.

Any wisdom to share? (And I ask this being aware that I'm sort of hi-jacking the OP's thread, however thinking that this might also enlighten the original post as well)

Well you should see what we do with "hard cast" in the 30BR in cast bullet association matches.
When shot head to head with breech seat rifles scores and groups are similar.
The first 20 years I cast all I had was linotype. And I shot just as good groups as anyone I shot with in rifles and pistols.