CVA rifle find

I purchased a CVA Mountain rifle yesterday and it is a bit unusual. The trigger guard, butt plate and the nose cap are cast of soft pewter. :hmm: The thimbles are steel. It is a .50 cal made in Spain. It has no cap box. Have any of you grey beards seen such a critter before? Thanks for any help.

what caliber?

big bore mr did not patch box and if in .58, desirable!

photo?

The Butt plate and triggerguard should be steel, the triggerguard may be the same material as the nosecap? As Brett said the "Big Bore" models of .54 and .58 did not have the patch box but a .50 should have it. It may have been put together out of a combination of parts from the different models. Either way you have what is regarded as the Best of the CVA rifles. The early ones were even better with American maple stocks and American made barrels. I have the later version in .50 put together from a partial kit and new parts from Deer Creek, including a new barrel. Shoots great.

The barrel is stamped CVA, made in spain, .50 cal and MOUNTAIN in capital letters. I also have a kit built CVA mountain rifle to compare it to. The difference between the two are steel furniture versus pewter furniture and no patch box on the new rifle. The trigger guard is of a different shape, more of a CVA Frontier style. It is possible that it is a parts gun. I believe it is unfired. I will have to make a trip to the library and see if I can research it further. Thanks all.

I have 5 Mt. Rifles and non say "Mountain" on the barrels and the only part pewter is the nosecaps!

ONESHOT...

Lots of speculation so far, but nope, your new rifle is not a parts gun at all. :nono:

Rather it's a standard model Mountain Rifle from the late 1980's. For this third version of the standard MR they dropped the patch box, changed the butt plate and trigger guard furniture from steel to what they called pewter type (same as the nose cap), used a trigger guard that is shaped like most of their other rifle models had, and changed the stock wood from the select hardwood used on the bulk of the other Spainish rifles before it to walnut. USA rifles and the earliest Spainish rifles had maple stocks.

It's probably a rare find as this was near the end of CVA's sidelocks, so maybe not a lot of them were sold. Back then they retailed for a Hamilton less than three Franklin's.

I still have all my hair and its not grey, but my full beard is. :grin:

Saved you a trip to the library (which wouldn't have helped you anyway). :wink:

Walks Alone

Thanks for the info Walks Alone. :thumbsup: I have seen a lot of CVA mountain rifles but none like this one. :idunno: I looked for the serial # and saw an 88 stamped on the barrel then a space followed by a 6 digit serial #. I speculated that the 88 meant 1988. Good to know.

p.s. Got grey up top and the beard, heard that it makes us look wise. :hmm:

I have an older Mountain rifle, from the late 70`s. The only markings on the barrel are "Connecticut Valley Arms, 50 cal, black powder only" and a serial #.
I am going to speculate though, that the later ones probably have the model name stamped on the barrel. I have two other CVA rifles from later on in the 80`s (a Kentucky and Squirrel). Both have their respective model names stamped on a barrel flat.