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vintage cva kentucky rifle

8K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Grizzley1 
#1 ·
I was given an early CVA Kentucky Rifle. My friend had this rifle sitting in his gunsafe for the last 30 years. His dad had the rifle for a number of years and then handed it down to my friend who stored it away in his gunsafe for the last 30 years. He is not interested in muzzleloaders and had never shot the rifle. I tried to get him to sell me the gun on several occasions and finally gave up on trying. I was over at his house the other day and I brought up the subject of the rifle again and to my surprise he gave me the rifle and told me to give it a good home and that it needed to be shot. It is a very early CVA rifle. Its in excellent shape for its age. All that was needed was a good cleaning to get the cobwebs out and all the moving parts reoiled. The bore is crystal clear. It is evident that it has not been shot much. No rust or pitting on the metal parts and the wood has no scratches,dings, or handling marks on it. The barrel and lock are browned with a nice patina that comes with age. The Brass furniture has aged to a nice dark yellow glow. There is no proof marks on the barrel and no made in Spain or U.S.A. either. The only markings on the barrel are behind the rear sight on the left flats and says: Connecticut Valley Arms Inc. 45 Cal. and the serial number# 00242. It has a single trigger and no Patchbox. The rear sight is a semi buckhorn in an iron base. the front sight is a Copper blade set in an iron base. The stock is a two piece stock with a thin Brass connector holding the two stock pieces together. The barrel and tang are one part. The barrel is held into the stock in the rear with the tang bolt going down through the stock and screwed into the triggerplate. In the front its held in place by the Nosecap having two screws that go up through the bottom of the Nosecap and through the stock and is screwed into the bottom flats of the barrel. There are no wedge keys or pins on this rifle. I do not know if this rifle is a kit gun or a factory build. If it is a kit gun the builder must have been a gunsmith or craftsman. The fit and finnish is excellent. The wood of the stock appears to be curly maple, it has alot of curl in the grain of the wood. I dont know how much it could be worth if not alot at all but it doesnt matter to me. She is a keeper and Im going to shoot the heck out of it! Its been sitting around unused way to long. Just out of curiosity I would like to know about when this rifle could have been built. I will send pics as soon as I figure out how to post pictures on my computer. A little insight would be greatly appreciated. cowboys1062
 
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#3 ·
Just a rough guess but if it's a curly maple stock it's from the first few years they made them, later stocks are of beechwood. There should be two pins holding the barrel to the stock, one on each side of the join between the two halves.
 
#4 ·
If my memory is to be trusted CVA blued all their production rifles so if it's browned my thought is that it was put together from a kit. Again, depending on the trustworthiness of my memory, some maker from back then screwed the stock to the barrel. If this is true there will be holes in the bottom of the ramrod thimbles to access the screw heads. If not, it's pinned somewhere. I believe the nose caps were also screwed on. However, it's been a few decades since I looked at or owned one, thus the questionable memory. Back in the 70's I owned a few CVA's and all I had were good shooters.
 
#5 ·
I believe your right about blued barrels on factory made rifles, the lock would have been color cased as well, I've never seen a CVA Kentucky that had screws running through the ramrod thimbles to retain the barrel to the stock or that didn't have a breach tang that unscrewed from the barrel, that doesn't mean that they didn't on the very early ones it just means I've never seen one.

Perhaps our kit builder wasn't confident in his ability to drill the pin holes correctly and feared missing the tennons or getting them crooked and left them off, I've had a couple customers with Kentucky kits have me drill the stock for the pins because they knew better than to try it themselves.

I've had several CVA rifles myself over the years and still have two of them, all of them shot very well if I did my part.
 
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