CVA Mountain Rifle

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R

RWMC

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I recently acquired a used mountain rifle; a .54 flintlock. I have seen many pictures of these online, but the one I acquired does not have a patch box. Was curious if anyone out there knew if this was just a cheaper, later version, or if it was an option to have them with or without a patch box. Thank you for any information that you can share. BPI outdoors ( Company who bought out CVA ) have no records about any of the traditional side lock/flintlock CVA firearms. Thank you for your help.
 
The .54 and .58 caliber Mountain Rifles never had patch boxes.

If you post pictures we may be able to tell you approximately when it was made. The Big Bore Mountain Rifles were introduced in 1979 and were produced off and on until about the time that CVA dropped their sidelocks.

Very accurate rifles but some of those flint locks are troublesome. Sometimes the set triggers get out of tune because of over-tightening of the screws. L&R sells replacement locks that are much more reliable and of better quality that pretty much drop in with little modification of the stock's wood.
 
Well if I remember correctly, the CVA plains style rifles (iirc the Hawken and the Frontier) have a single barrel key, and a single "toe" on the brass trigger guard, while the Mountain Rifle has two barrel keys, and two "toes" on the trigger guard. The Mountain Rifle has a 32" barrel, while the Hawken has a 28" and the Frontier I think has a 26" barrel. Patch boxes can be a problem as the Hawken had one, the Frontier did not, but the Mountain Rifle kit in .50 and .45 also had a patch box...., while the bigger bores didn't.

LD
 
Thanks LD I always thought mine was a Mountain rifle, I bought it as a kit in 1978 and over the years my brain has gone awry.
I bought as a kit from the JC Penney catalog Been a lot of years.
It handles and shoots so well, it's one gun I have not sold and never will.
 
Yeah, it was a loss to the BP community when CVA discontinued the Mountain Rifle, especially the .58. They are a rare find these days because nobody wants to part with them. I tried to pick one up in .58 about four months ago on a for-sale-site, and it had only been listed for about 12 hours..., gone! Especially now with L&R making after market "upgrade" locks for the CVA's, DGW's, and TC's.

LD
 
DD4lifeusmc said:
The CVA Plains rifle and the Mountain rifle look so much alike, what are the subtle differences.
Click to expand...

CVA Introduced the Plainsman in 1990. It was a simple rifle with the large lock of the Hawken but was operated by a single trigger. If you bought a kit rifle in 1978, it was either a Mountain Rifle or a Kentucky Rifle. In 1979 the Big Bore MRs were introduced as was the Frontier rifle, which was very similar to the MR, same lock but with one barrel wedge and a 28" barrel length among other changes. The Frontier Rifle was much more slender than the later (1981) Hawken.
 
The Mountain Rifles are about the most accurate of the CVA's. CVA flintlocks are supposed to have some issues. All the comments here are dead on. I bought my .58 from an eldery gentleman who built it from a kit. He changed the sights to tradional style. Claims there are two bodies on this one. One of who made the mistake of trying to steal his combine. Don't know if it's true but it is a good story. Gun is deadly accurate.
 
Yes, the problem with flintlocks is you have problems when a maker goes for "inexpensive". So the CVA locks were and are "quirky". Some are quite reliable, and some have a lot of slop where the frizzen pivots on the frizzen screw, and some had frizzen that quickly wore out. It's not uncommon to find them with a refaced frizzen. Replacement frizzens are hard to find and often don't quite "drop in". However, the CVA rifles were popular enough that L&R had sufficient demand to make an upgrade lock for them.

LD
 
I wish we had an American company making factory new TRADITIONAL muzzleloading rifles! Too bad what happened to CVA, those mountain rifles were beautiful!

Now it's either "everything Italian or everything in your wallet" to get a custom one made in the States. It's unfortunate that traditional blackpowder rifle shooting isn't popular enough to make such a business feasible for a U.S. company to do it. But, that being said, the Italians do a pretty good job. My Lyman (Investarms) plains rifle is about as much fun as can be had with clothes on and was pretty inexpensive.
 
Cooldill said:
I wish we had an American company making factory new TRADITIONAL muzzleloading rifles! Too bad what happened to CVA, those mountain rifles were beautiful!
Click to expand...

Hate to bust the bubble, but although CVA is an American company, (iirc) the barrels were Spanish, or sometimes Italian. I believe CVA present rifles are barreled with products from Spain. DGW and Navy Arms both sold a brown bess back in the day..., made in Japan. Lyman's rifles are made in Italy.

I agree I'd like to see a production rifle with an American barrel..., I wouldn't care if it was assembled in Canada, as long as the barrel and lock were from USA.

LD
 
Loyalist Dave said:
Hate to bust the bubble, but although CVA is an American company, (iirc) the barrels were Spanish, or sometimes Italian. I believe CVA present rifles are barreled with products from Spain. DGW and Navy Arms both sold a brown bess back in the day..., made in Japan. Lyman's rifles are made in Italy.

I agree I'd like to see a production rifle with an American barrel..., I wouldn't care if it was assembled in Canada, as long as the barrel and lock were from USA.

LD
Click to expand...
you can if you go custom built like sittingfoxmuzzeloaders or tvm muzzleloaders etc!! these are 100% American made parts and all!!
 
Loyalist Dave said:
Yeah, it was a loss to the BP community when CVA discontinued the Mountain Rifle, especially the .58. They are a rare find these days because nobody wants to part with them. I tried to pick one up in .58 about four months ago on a for-sale-site, and it had only been listed for about 12 hours..., gone! Especially now with L&R making after market "upgrade" locks for the CVA's, DGW's, and TC's.

LD
Click to expand...
Sorry, who do you mean when you refer to L&R?
 
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