CVA Mountain or Frontier Mystery

[Gbro]

I do not like the fact that the ramrod extends pat the barrel. but when i put it down it goes almost all the way unloaded. is there a fix for this, or should i even mess with it?

If your ramrod is sticking that far out and almost all the way in unloaded seems wrong to me. There may be a missing rod tip in the hole or some other obstruction. Take the lock out and see where it bottoms as it should allow the rod to go all the way to the barrel tang screw. You might take out the forward trigger guard screw and see if that is interfering with the rod.

here is a pic of the rear sight. not the same as other frontiers. maybe that would indicate age. .

That is a very nice looking rear sight. I think it is what is called a European design. That means it is loose in the dovetail and you would loosen the screw to make an adjustment and then set it. A very nice way to adjust the sight.

Even if it around twenty years old i am a little surprised that one would take care of the outside so well and neglect the inside

All it would take is one shot out of the gun and not clean it and in time the barrel could be ruined. That is why so many people choose to use substitute powders instead of real black powder. The salts left behind after just one firing of B/P are as caustic as 10 shots in some instances. This sure is not intended to scare you away from using original black powder as that is all I use. We just have to clean the gun as soon as we finish shooting.

 

[Hawg]

We just have to clean the gun as soon as we finish shooting

That's not true. Given enough time bp residue will ruin a barrel but it won't happen overnight or even in a week. Pyrodex is supposed to be more corrosive than real bp but I've left guns uncleaned for over a week using it with no signs of rust or corrosion.

If your ramrod is sticking that far out and almost all the way in unloaded seems wrong to me.

That's CVA for ya. I had a St. Louis Hawken that was like that only the jag on mine didn't come off. The other end was threaded for the rest of the attachments.

 

[arcticap]

I've bought "new & unfired" rifles that were 20 to 30 years old that still had bp residue in the barrel from the test firing at the factory which they didn't clean out, and the barrels were not damaged by it being left in the barrels.
When cleaning such a rifle for the first time I do get a little nervous about whether the residue caused any rust and pitting or not. But so far, so good. The factories must not be using full house loads but only smaller test loads to function fire the new rifles.