CVA rifle identification

I recently picked up a CVA 50 cal rifle that was said to be a Hawken but it has a toe plate and a different patch box cover with a fancy upper butt plate piece. It has all brass hardware and adjustable rear sight. I change out the rear sights on my guns to solid sights unless they are rare or valuable, not sure if this is either. Any help would appreciated.

Looks like a Hawken to me, what is the twist?

AntiqueSledMan.

A CVA Hawken that someone fancied up a bit.

Hardware looks like the stuff on my CVA except mine has two barrel wedges, I seem to remember when I got mine in the 1970s it was a "Mountain Rifle"? I need to post a picture to see if it is a mountain rifle, have to take one first, only one I have is a Polaroid, which shows nothing identifiable.

I agree with bubba.50, it looks like someone personalized it along the way. Nice unique Hawken.

What is the barrel length? CVA made two similar rifles, the Hawken has 28'' and the Mountain has a 32".

Hello All,

I updated the pdf.

AntiqueSledMan.

Nice file. Thank you.

AntiqueSledMan said:

Hello All,

Here is a little history lesson on CVA.

AntiqueSledMan.

Click to expand...

AntiqueSledMan said:

Hello All,

Here is a little history lesson on CVA.

AntiqueSledMan.

Click to expand...

ASM, thanks for the trip down memory lane. If only I had bought more of them at the time.

Yes, answered my thoughts entirely, Thanks for posting the CVA file....Mr AntiqueSledMan

My rifle is the Mountain Rifle percussion .50 caliber 32"x15/16", 1:66 twist.
I bought two of the kits, sold one to my hunting buddy at cost seems at less than $75 each. I picked them out of a whiskey barrel full that a wholesale has just put out for sale. I kept the one with barrel serial number 000700 and sold him the one with 0007XX. in late 1975. We completed them and started shooting them over snow to see any unburned powder residue to find the best load, we settled on 100 Grains of Goex FFG, with a patched cast lead ball. around 30 rounds both failed to fire, didn't bust the caps, checked and both hammer springs were weak. I contacted CVA and received two new springs in a couple of days. I replaced them and since then we neither one had a firing nor accuracy problem from either gun. I haven't shot mine since about 1995, just clean and oil it a couple of times per year. The bore is still bright and has good crisp rifleings.

My friend died last November at 84.

Hey Guys,

The oldest catalog I have is 1977, a Mountain Rifle kit was $109.95 & finished Rifle was $159.95, percussion only. Flintlocks weren't available till 1978.

AntiqueSledMan.

Eutycus said:

View attachment 17700

Click to expand...

yep, mine sure looks like the ad. the add-on butt plate top piece and toe plate were added by some one?

Beside using barrel length to help determine which rifle you own, the old catalog states that the Hawken has 1" across the flats , whereas the Mountain has 15/16s.

My first bp gun was a Cva Blazer.Bought it used, shot it a coupla years,until the round disc holding the barrel to the stock stripped out. I filed it away until this summer when I heard about the recall.Contacted CVA , they sent me an Optima, I blessed my son -in law with a cool birthday present.CVA gets 2 thumbs up for customer svc.

Hey guys,

I updated the pdf.

Mystery solved?,I think this rifle started life as a Frontier rifle because it has a 15/16 1:66 barrel where the Hawken is 1 inch. Somewhere along the way the previous owner wanted a Hawken. on very close inspection ( I mean magnifier close) are scribe marks where they marked out for the butt plate top piece and patchbox. the trigger guard was swapped out for a Hawken style. I think the only parts that may still be from the original Frontier rifle are the barrel, ramrod thimbles and rib and maybe the stock. I haven't found a four screw patchbox yet nor the top butt plate piece in any of my catalogs so they may have come from older gun parts or something they had laying around. If all this is true, I won't feel bad about replacing the barrel and ruining the value. It was left uncleaned for a very long time.

CVA 'Frontier' was a good rifle.
I built one from a kit back in the 1980's (wish I still had it and the CVA 'Kentucky' kit (?) rifle I had back then.)
After building the 'Frontier' and working up a good load (if memory serves it was 110 grains Dupont Fg under a pillow tick patched .490 round ball) I could hit 1 inch diameter broom sticks at 100 yards.

For some reason this upset my step brother.
He'd bet me I couldn't hit the broom stick once out of three shots.

I hit it with first and second shots. He didn't want me to take the third shot 'cause he owed a case of Mtn Dew soda every time I hit it. (I didn't drink then or now)
Yes. He did call me a few not nice things, but he did pay up.
I think the soda was cheaper than beer, so I "saved" him money.

I got myself a new toy today a Teslong Professional Borescope $49.95 shipping included from Amazon. hooked up to my windows 10 laptop and it works! here is a picture of me holding the 20mm diameter camera with a 45 degree mirror on the end.

and a pic of the rifling of the .50 mountain rifle. The pic was taken off the laptop while the prob was in the barrel the tiny camera has six tiny LEDs that ate adjustable for brightness. Has a 18 month warranty so maybe I will learn something about my rifle bores before it quits.