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Has Anyone Ever Bought A Lemon?

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Skaggs Drug store in Billings,MT during Christmas sales 1969 had a fifteen minute Microphone special 3 FIE 45 caliber Kentucky Rifles for 45 bucks. One wasn't accurate then the barrel split two inches starting at the breach plug. Never owned a Black powder gun before that so it could have been operator error, the only powder they had left to sell was FFF. The Next was a Thompson Center 50 cal that had to be cleaned after four rounds or accuracy eroded extremely fast.
 
Oh, yeah, the earliest CVA flintlock was a flop, but it had a Douglas barrel. I, a lot of the time have found the biggest lemon is the operator. I found a new frizzen and case hardened it. The kit was a rough one to assemble, as said before, nothing lined up and the fact I was a novice just added to difficulty as assembled. Still got it but, hunt it seldom. Many a squirrel, gravy, and potato meals because of the little 45 Cal.
 
I know guys here bad mouth the hell out of the CVA guns. I was sorta a snob too at one time.
But 35 + years of competitive shooting at state, local NMLRA, and many rendezvous, guys using them cleaned up.
They shot better than their custom guns.
And some of the early ones did have issues, the bbl wasn't one of them
 
I bought a Lyman GP .54 someone had built from a kit. The barrel was only 60 percent crowned, and 40 percent had been left with zero crown. A buddy recrowned it on a lathe. Still can't get it to group better than 4 inches at 50, but now it at least can hit a barn from inside. May use if for a tomato stake in the garden this year.
 
crankshaft said:
I know guys here bad mouth the hell out of the CVA guns. I was sorta a snob too at one time.
But 35 + years of competitive shooting at state, local NMLRA, and many rendezvous, guys using them cleaned up.
They shot better than their custom guns.
And some of the early ones did have issues, the bbl wasn't one of them
Click to expand...
Never had accuracy problems with CVAs. Issues were related manufacturing defects.
 
crankshaft said:
I know guys here bad mouth the hell out of the CVA guns.
Click to expand...
SDSmlf said:
Never had accuracy problems with CVAs. Issues were related manufacturing defects.
Click to expand...
crankshaft said:
That's kinda what I said.
Click to expand...

My mistake. Should have disagreed with your ‘guys here bad mouth the hell out of the CVA guns‘ statement. Repeatedly stated on this forum that CVAs were very accurate in spite of other issues. I responded with my accuracy statement because of my mini rant on CVA manufacturing quality problems in posts #7 and #21 in this thread. Nothing negative on CVA accuracy. Their early manufacturing quality, another topic. Again, my mistake.
 
hanshi said:
Back in the early 1970s, I bought a "Wesson" style rifle in .45. Before I got a chance to shoot it I slowly began to realize something about it wasn't right. Then it dawned on me that the bore was crooked; one side of the muzzle was thinner than the other.

The other was a nice Pedersoli Super Cub. It was a very attractive rifle, accurate as heck and handy in the bush. But the flint lock on the gun might spark 3-4 times and changing flints never helped. I eventually got a percussion lock for it and killed lots of deer along with enjoying that nice rifle. I would switch out the locks depending on how I felt but the flint never improved. Still, I did manage to kill 2 deer with the flint lock installed; but both times I had to fire it twice to get ignition. Surprisingly, the rifle, wearing the flint, killed one of the two deer that were my farthest shots; something over 100 yards. So the rifle was great but the lock was a disaster.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the breech plug was installed on the wrong end of the barrel.
 
I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with two different “builders” the first one I did some reasearch and everyone on the forum ( not this one) said he was a reputable builder and sang his praises. I called him and told him what I desired, he agreed and started the process... documenting it all on the forum, I noticed a few things from his pictures he posted right off the bat. One was the patchbox was terribly inletted, the other was the ramrod entry thimble was crooked as I’ll get out. I asked him about those issues and he said it was the light and camera tricks. Well when I received the rifle, he had not neutralized the browning and all that was browned was rusty as heck... not a big deal. But the patchbox was terrible as was the entry thimble... not sure if that was considered a lemon or not.. about 60 hours worth of work and all was good.
The other bad experience WAS an archatectual lemon... a rifle was built for me that was sposed to have been a SMR... turned out to be... well I’m not sure what it could even be called. So as I type this it is getting restocked. Once again, pictures made it look good... when I received it in the mail and opened it up ... it was a nightmare. I called the builder and expressed my dissatisfaction and he said he was sorry. I could have sent it back, but fearing it would be a year or so to get it back I decided to reshape a few things and live with it. 5 years later it’s getting restocked by another builder that I have full confidence in. The rifle is accurate, lightweight and was a beautiful piece of wood...but looked like a cross between a SMR and a canoe paddle.
 
What is a SMR?

I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE WRITE WITH ACCRONYMS./


IF YOU MUST USE ACCRONYMS , THE FIRST TIME YOU USE IT YOU SHOULD FOLLOW IT WITH THE FULL WORD SO WE CAN THEM UNDERSTAND WHAT THE H__L YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

DUTCH

S.Kenton said:
I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with two different “builders” the first one I did some reasearch and everyone on the forum ( not this one) said he was a reputable builder and sang his praises. I called him and told him what I desired, he agreed and started the process... documenting it all on the forum, I noticed a few things from his pictures he posted right off the bat. One was the patchbox was terribly inletted, the other was the ramrod entry thimble was crooked as I’ll get out. I asked him about those issues and he said it was the light and camera tricks. Well when I received the rifle, he had not neutralized the browning and all that was browned was rusty as heck... not a big deal. But the patchbox was terrible as was the entry thimble... not sure if that was considered a lemon or not.. about 60 hours worth of work and all was good.
The other bad experience WAS an archatectual lemon... a rifle was built for me that was sposed to have been a SMR... turned out to be... well I’m not sure what it could even be called. So as I type this it is getting restocked. Once again, pictures made it look good... when I received it in the mail and opened it up ... it was a nightmare. I called the builder and expressed my dissatisfaction and he said he was sorry. I could have sent it back, but fearing it would be a year or so to get it back I decided to reshape a few things and live with it. 5 years later it’s getting restocked by another builder that I have full confidence in. The rifle is accurate, lightweight and was a beautiful piece of wood...but looked like a cross between a SMR and a canoe paddle.
Click to expand...
 
rp77469 said:
I bought a Lyman GP .54 someone had built from a kit. The barrel was only 60 percent crowned, and 40 percent had been left with zero crown. A buddy recrowned it on a lathe. Still can't get it to group better than 4 inches at 50, but now it at least can hit a barn from inside. May use if for a tomato stake in the garden this year.
Click to expand...

For about $150.00 you can have it bored out to a .58 that will be accurate:rolleyes:. Thats what I would do. But nobody does things I would do anymore (per swmbo)
 

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