CVA .50-cal Hawken in disrepair

3

308Enfield

New member
I ran across what was potentially a good deal today, but passed on it as I need to be putting my money in other places. I am curious as to how good a deal this was and what would have been involved in working on it, maybe the information will be handy for somebody else as well.

I was at a gun show today and ran across an old .50 caliber CVA muzzleloader, percussion, Hawken rifle. The blue was worn completely off the barrel down to the white on the right rear of the barrel. The muzzle was in similar condition. The action obviously had some surface rust and the hammer was really stiff, although it did stay at full and half cock and also released when the trigger was pulled. The asking price was $80. I don't currently have a muzzleloader, so don't have the related gear, and in that condition I decided to pass on it today (I'm saving up for a CCW pistol). Just out of curiosity, does anyone have the experience to say what would be involved in getting a rifle in this condition into good shooting shape again?
 
Rough lock. Probably just cleaning. Bluing worn off? No problem. Strip it and brown it in your cellar. One nice thing about browned guns, you don't have to put a glossly polish on it for it to take a brown (unlike a blue job). I'd have bought it (but tried first to haggle the guy down to $50 for the wall hanger).
 
I have recoverd a couple of the CVA rifles and have found the hardest thing is getting parts for the action/trigger group. Many people downgrade the CVAs because they are less expensive than other brands. I have found them to be very accurate and tough guns. At $80, I'd have haggled about the condition, but would have bought it even if he didn't drop the price.

Pops
 
Cva

You passed up a good deal. I have repaired and restored several CVA pawn shop rifles for a friends Every one of them came out good looking, good shooting guns. Just this past weekend I finished converting a CVA Mountain Rifle to flintlock.

Parts are availible from Deer Creek Products.
 
I knew when I walked out of the show I was going to regret passing up that rifle :( Thanks for the great information, I certainly won't make the same mistake again. Maybe I can get lucky running across a similar piece while pawn shopping some day.
 
The fortune cookie says, "Accept failure...

and learn from it. You'll be a stronger and better person from it and learning from mistakes can teach you more than avoiding risks for fear of making mistakes. Follow the latter and you may just learn nothing. A lot of folks are in this mode. Don't forget, you didn't lose a dime by not buying that gun.
 
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