Cva mountain rifle issues

Hey all, I took the old mountain rifle kit gun out to shoot several weekends ago. I have an issue with the hammer not setting off percussion caps sometimes. I also have a mystery part that I have no idea where it goes. It may be causing problems with the hammer/nipple allignment. I will attach a picture for clarification.
I'm also still having problems with the triggers. I believe some of these guns required shims around the lock to correct the problem. If anyone can provide any insight on that it would be great as well.

Here is the "mystery piece"
Please let me know if you need more info as I'm sure I'm being pretty vague. I'm just not sure how to explain it!

That 'mystery piece' is the catch for the ramrod. Forward lock bolt goes thru it in the ramrod channel under the barrel to hold the ramrod.

What Tyrone said is correct. Mine doesn't have one and it's not needed. I don't know if goes with your gun or not but if your ramrod says in place, you don't need it. For the shim, I put one under my triggers and it solved the problem. I have heard of people also shimming out the lock because it is inset too deep so that works also.

Not setting off the caps is usually a cap/nipple issue where it has an improper fit. Common problem as manufacturer standards aren't always the same for caps. Make sure your caps are going on all the way. Also could be a weak mainspring or hammer not hitting the nipple squarely. You could remove your lock and clean and oil it good and that also could cure your problem.

Here's where it's located on my CVA Mt. rifle
[/URL][/img]

Hooray! It is no longer a mystery piece.
If it is inlet too deeply could that be causing trigger issues? I'm having problems with it dropping the hammer from pulling the set trigger. It also wants to drop the hammer from half cock. Any ideas there?

The Mountain Rifle is notorious for that problem.
They're old,, they've been passed through several hands and the wood dry's through the years.
These issues all combine for a poor trigger to inlet problem.

The trigger is held in with a through stock tang bolt from the top of the rifle, over tightening compresses the wood in the mortise and the triggers ride to high,, making the triggers press against the lock's sear.

Your right in that a shim can fix it, usually some epoxy bedding or a shim added to the front of the trigger mortise will fix the trouble,
Some guys use washers, some guy's use wood, others get elaborate and bed the area,, it can take up too an 1/8 inch to bring the triggers down to where they need to be.

Hope that helps,,

Awesome, that let's me know where I need to focus my efforts. When I picked this gun up I had no idea the problems I would inherit. I think once this temperamental old girl is fixed it will be that much more rewarding.

Do you have the Mountain Stalker or Mountain rifle? The Mountain rifle was one of the best shooting guns CVA ever put out and is highly sawed after. I'm sure you will be plenty happy either way when you get your issues worked out.

Thy mystery piece is indeed the ramrod keeper.

The problem with misfiring the caps could be a question of improper lock spacing however a more likely problem, especially with newly acquired used guns, is the nipple being mushroomed form being "dry fired" on a bare nipple causing the cap to not seat properly. This can be sometimes be corrected by dressing the sides of the nipple with a file, but is usually better addressed by simply replacing the nipple.

Toomuch
..............
Shoot Flint

The CVAs didn't always have the strongest of mainsprings in the lock, so even the slightest out of shape nipple or misaligned hammer could cause problems.

It's a mountain rifle. The previous owner finished the wood and put it together, but never finished the barrel or fired the gun. I browned the barrel and polished the furniture. I gave $75 for it, and I'm thrilled with it so far

Trot said:

The CVAs didn't always have the strongest of mainsprings in the lock,

Click to expand...

That's another issue with the CVA,
Folks will over tighten the lock screws and pull the mainspring into the wood of the lock mortise slowing or even jamming the lock.
It doesn't take a gorilla to tighten the screws on these ML guns.

An update: the rifle set off every cap today. The problem before was that the caps tend to stick in the underside of the hammer face after detonating. If I don't pry it loose, it will cause a misfire on the next cap.
I got it sighted about 2" high at 25 yards. It was touching holes with .490 roundball and mattress ticking. 80 grains 2f.
This combination was loose and I'm sure I will increase thickness to pillow ticking later, as I'm sure the rifling is still smoothing up.
Is lapping the bore a good idea for this rifle?

MIne does real well with 65gr. 2f a .495 ball and .015 ticking. The.490 shot well also but the .495 does better.

lappin' is generally unnecessary in a new barrel. shootin' it a hundred or two times will do as good or better than lappin' & be a whole lot more fun in the process. my opinion & welcome to it.

I would not lap the bore unless really having problems with patches. A new unfired barrel needs to be shot for a while before doing anything to it. :2

I don't think I could get that .495 combination down the barrel. I'm sure it may just need to be "shot in" before I can right up the patches

chickenmcnasty said:

Hooray! It is no longer a mystery piece.
If it is inlet too deeply could that be causing trigger issues? I'm having problems with it dropping the hammer from pulling the set trigger. It also wants to drop the hammer from half cock. Any ideas there?

Click to expand...

The set trigger. Start by backing it cmpletely off.
If adjusted too tight it will cause hammer to fall without pulling the trigger.
With the barrel removed you should be able to watch the action from hammer down through to full cock.
A set trigger set to tight will cause premature wear on the sear and such. Leading to more problems of not staying cocked.
When set trigger is properly set, then it should still take an intentional squeeze to fire.