Found a good deal today

We were in a pawn shop today and I spoted a CVA .50 Hawken pistol in the display case for $109.95 and a handful of crappy Jukar .45 single shots.

So I checked out the hand guns and pulled out a pair of Jukars and the Hawken pistol and talked the pawn shop guy into selling me all three for $200. I have wanted a back up pistol for the hunt that shoots the same round as my rifle. Mission acomplished.

The Jukars will mainly be props for a very un PC/HC Pirate costume that Sevan wears on occasion. I cleaned them up, blued the barrels and polished the brass somewhat. I will test fire them tommorow.

The CVA has never been fired. When I pulled it apart it still had some of the greese from the factory packed in the back end of the breach. It has been polished on the brass a number of times with brass polish but thats it. I had to strip all the hardware to get it properly polished and cleaned tso as to not have green caked brass polish showing under the furniture . The barrel didn't have any rust.

The CVA stock is rather bland looking. Think I am going to strip it and restain it.

Not the plan that I started the day with, but it is a ladies perogative to change her mind.
:grin:

Yeah, I'm the same way. As bad as cute puppies that kept following me home over the years!
That and parts tables at guns shows, are another weakness.
Sounds like you made a good deal. And at the very least you picked up some trading fodder. MD

Nice find and great deal.

BFJ

glad to hear you found one, i know youve been wanting a 50 cal pistol.

i still havent sighted mine in yet...

-Matt

I have never had an unfired gun. Ever.
I feel wierd about shooting it. Almost like I shouldn't. The pistol is in very good condition. No scorch marks on any of it. Once I load and shoot it, it is forever a fired gun.

The wood on it looks like it sat on a shelf in the sun for years. Cleaning it was mainly a matter of cleaning out the dust it had acumulated and oiling the mechanical parts a tad. There was even dust acumulated under the barrel and in the lock.

Now that I have handled a number of CVAs' and I own a pistol and a rifle of thiers, it seems to me that the barrels are rather good barrels, but the locks leave something to be desired. The wood to metal fit is not the best, but I have seen worse. :shocked2:

Sounds like you got a good deal. I have a buddy who carries a CVA 50 cal. pistol for backup shots while hunting, and he loves it.

I've got one of these built from a kit I bought in 1975 for $39.95.Shoots real well with BP and PRB after some sight work it'll shoot one ragged hole @ 25-30yrds.It doesn't like 60gr of Fffg Goex and a MAXI HUNTER however or should I say the stock didn't like it :cursing: Anyway the stock fixed right up and now I shoot 30-40 gr and PRB

nice find - congrats!

hotoSmile:

Come on now it ain't so unless, you show us! :wink:

Sounds like you did alright! :thumbsup:

I have taken a pic of it but I am waiting until I restain the stock and polish up the brass for a before and after showing.
:wink:

As I've mentioned in the Gun Builders Bench several times, the wood that Ardesa used for the CVA guns is blond and it doesn't take an oil based stain well.
"Stains" like Minwax etc work rather poorly.

If you can find it, Birchwood Caseys water or alcohol based Walnut, or their old, long out of production "Colonial Brown" works well.

It will take several coats of stain to get a dark color though.

I'm racking my old brain for the name of the fellow who used to own TVM. Anyway, he told me to use leather dye. He sent me a small bottle and I used it on the kit that I bought from him. When I first put it on the wood, it was waaay too dark and I was about to panic. But a bit of buffing with some 4 ought steel wool lightened up the wood and it resulted in the best colored stock that I have. So give the leather dye a try and after putting it on and letting it dry, start buffing with 4 ought steel wool until it is the color you want. Finish with several coats of Tru Oil. Let it sit for about a month so the finish will completely harden and then buff it with Stock Sheen. Oh, such a beautiful finish. Mama will be proud!!! :thumbsup:

As you know it was made to be shot so it's a match made of intent and purpose! It's only fired the first time once so enjoy! Geo. T.

Before you count out the Jukers ,you need to shoot them. I have one I got for $80 several years ago from a guy that said he couldn't hit s### with it and all I did was recrown the muzzle. It looked like it was cut at the factory with a hacksaw, now it's my main competition pistol.

the barrels are really pretty good and the lock is somewhat better than my old CVA

Galen

Funny you should post that while I was out shooting the Jukars... :haha:

My opinion is that they are good little guns for the $50.00 I paid apiece for them. I haven't worked up a load for them as I don't have the right sized bullets but I have been able to get them to hit paper with everything from 15-30 grains of 3F. The bullets I am ussing are .433 round balls I have wraped in a very thin slice of newsprint. No patch, the news print is sorta like a sabot. Bore butter for lube for some shots, Dixie mini-maxi lube for others. I have almost a full canister of the dixie grease so I am trying to use it up. It came free with one of my rifles. I never will buy the stuff! ewwww

The barrels on the Jukars are pited but still good to go.
Oh yeah!! I almost forgot to mention!
When I took the Jukars apart and started to clean them, one of them had a deadly pipe bomb charge in the barrel. It had about 20 grains of smokeless powder under a thick wad of patches.
So it is a good thing I checked for loads before I decided to just pop a cap on them!
Always check a second hand gun for any bore obstruction or round in it. I did run the rods down the barrels at the pawn shop and I knew something was under it. My assumption had been it was just left loaded. Good thing I knew better than to shoot the load it was carrying.

What is the stoutest load and the lightest load you feel comfortable loading these pistols?

"When I took the Jukars apart and started to clean them, one of them had a deadly pipe bomb charge in the barrel. It had about 20 grains of smokeless powder under a thick wad of patches."


:shocked2: Good point about always checking a used gun over well, You never know what has been done with it in the past.

cynthialee said:

Oh yeah!! I almost forgot to mention!
When I took the Jukars apart and started to clean them, one of them had a deadly pipe bomb charge in the barrel. It had about 20 grains of smokeless powder under a thick wad of patches.
So it is a good thing I checked for loads before I decided to just pop a cap on them!
Always check a second hand gun for any bore obstruction or round in it. I did run the rods down the barrels at the pawn shop and I knew something was under it. My assumption had been it was just left loaded. Good thing I knew better than to shoot the load it was carrying.

Click to expand...

This warning cannot be repeated too often in BP circles. It is a not infrequent to discover charges in used muzzleloading firearms! ALWAYS check first and check it yourself! :thumbsup:

this is not the first time I have heard of a BP gun being charged with smokeless and patches

I have a theory that they are loaded like this to 'get even with' any would be thieves.

I don't know about a stoutest load. I just worked up a good target load which ended up being 30g fffg .440 ball and .18 patch and never went any higher. :haha: I let my grandson shoot it with 15g with the same patch and ball combo and it hits quite well at 25 yds.

Galen