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CVA .50 Cal Kentucky Pistol

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azsixshooter

36 Cl.
Joined
Feb 16, 2019
Messages
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Location
Pinckney, MI
An old friend of mine gave me a couple of CVA guns he built in high school last September. A .50 cal Hawken and a .50 cal Kentucky pistol with a 10" barrel. I finally got some BP and took the pistol out for a workout yesterday. I had a paper target and a small steel buffalo target that I picked up at the Lansing Muzzleloader Club's state championship shoot a few weeks ago. I was shooting Hornady .490" PRB's and some 270 grain Buffalo Ball-ets that I picked up at Johnson's Sporting Goods in Adrian when I got the black powder. I don't want to get too attached to the 270 grain Ball-ets because it looks like that company is out of business and no longer making those rounds. They were fun to shoot over 40 grains of Goex 2F though, they really put the smack on that little buffalo at 25 yards! I took some pyrodex out that I've had for about 30 years and it shot fine. I found that the PRB's over 25 grains of Goex 2F was a fine load to enjoy at that range and I was getting some pretty decent groupings despite a heavy trigger and my old eyes trying to shoot semi-buckhorn sights in the shady woods. What a fun way to spend an afternoon though, I think all the BP smoke even helped keep the raging mosquitos at bay. They were bad at first but after I got a good cloud of smoke going in the area I was in they kind of cleared out.

I am going to refinish the wood stock on this pistol and I may even draw file and brown the barrel at some point in the future. I would also like to learn about tuning actions and improving the trigger keeping safety as a priority at some point. I have "The Gunsmith Of Greenville County" and was recently reading the section on action tuning and it was pretty interesting. Without having a borescope it is hard to tell what condition the bore is in, but looking into it with a flashlight I'm not seeing any major rust or pitting. It may benefit from a lapping with some JB Boreshine, but I'm going to get some trigger time on her from a bench and see how much I can tighten up the groups by improving my own shooting first. I may also try different powder/patch combinations with the Hornady round balls. Maybe next year I can shoot the pistol match at the state competition, that was a ton of fun! Kentucky50Cal.jpgCVA50Kentucky.jpg50CalKentuckyFireball.jpg
 
The CVA lock should have a tiny adjustment screw that sets how much of the sear contacts the tumbler. That will lighten up the trigger pull. If you want to brown it no need to draw file. Just use some emory paper to remove the bluing Try 220 first. If not aggressive enough use 180 but don't go past 320. It is good to have some texture for the brown to grip onto.
I have the more modern Traditions version, but basically still the same gun. Accurate as all git out!
 
Great shooter! I just got one, myself. Looking to convert it to flint. Has anyone here ever done that?

On the CVA guns there really isn't a decent way to convert one to flint. CVA's patent breech design has the drum screwed directly into the breech plug (Zonie has posted pictures of what they look like in a couple threads) so it's not a case of just removing the drum and fitting a liner. It might be possible to cut the drum off and thread in a fitting and liner into the internal part of the drum but it would be a bit of work to get it done.

Would probably be easier to just get another barrel set up for flint and a new lock (L&R would be better than the locks CVA used) and with a little fitting you might be able to convert back and forth as desired by simply swapping barrel and lock ................ Or just find a flintlock pistol of the same style, might end up costing about the same in the long run
 
Would probably be easier to just get another barrel set up for flint and a new lock (L&R would be better than the locks CVA used) and with a little fitting you might be able to convert back and forth as desired by simply swapping barrel and lock ................ Or just find a flintlock pistol of the same style, might end up costing about the same in the long run


Thanks for the tip! You are probably right about the cost. Besides, you can never have too many guns!
RayJ
 
Good time for sure!
I have a CVA mountain pistol in 50 caliber. Last time at the range, I tried some Hornady PA conicals with a 45 grain charge of 3f Swiss powder. I was very impressed by the accuracy of those little pills.
 
Enjoy the new toys. About 40 years ago 45 caliber CVA Kentucky pistol kit, percussion, was my first BP handgun. My kit skills are minimal (understatement) and it looks terrible. But those Spanish barrels were darn good and even with the terrible trigger it has been decently accurate. Bet you're going to have a fun time with it.

Jeff
 
When I got into black powder I was building a Lyman GPR in .54 cal and my cousin gave me a bunch of muzzleloader stuff. One of the things he gave me was a CVA Kentucky pistol kit in .45. He and another guy were doing some volunteer work for an elderly lady and found it in her attic. When he gave it to me it was missing a part or 2 but nothing major. The barrel looked good inside and it's in the vise now where my 10 year old can draw file it anytime she feels like doing it. It is cleaning up well and after we get that filed and sanded I'll let her sand the stock and pick a color to stain it. I still have a bunch of LMF finish coating so we can probably use that to give it the same kind of hand-rubbed finish I did my GPR in. I'm thinking she can shoot this gun off of a rest with a PRB and something like 20 grains of 2F or maybe for now just fire it from the hip like a sawed-off shotgun into a hill or something until she gets big enough to actually aim and shoot. Maybe I should look into loading it with some bird shot for her so maybe she can knock down a can with it until she can handle proper projectiles in a rifled barrel.

In any case, I'm excited for her to put some work in (with my help) and see a finished product and have that pride we all feel when we see a thing through. I really wish I would have gotten into black powder sooner, but like they say about Texas....I wasn't born there but I got there as fast as I could!
 
If you need any parts, deercreek products is probably the best place to look.
I have a CVA Kentucky pistol in 45 caliber also. Very accurate with 20 grains of 3f powder and a 440 patched round ball.
With that load off the bench, the gun doesn't really jump at all.
 
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