cva hawken.

[trigger45]

traded in my sons rusty tc new englander and got a .54 cva hawken. this thing is very clean. looks like it will give years of good shooting. but it looks like a smooth bore. are all hawkens like this? this thing is round ball only right?
need some info. oh btw he wanted the tc new englander so he got mine.

 

[Blankwaffe]

Ive got a CVA St.Louis Hawken in .50cal. that I bought back in 1986 thats a excellent shooter.Took many a deer with that rifle.Those Spanish made Hawkens were some nice rifles.Only problem Ive ever had with mine was some simple lock work issues.Tends to prefer the .490" round ball and .018" ticked patch with about 70gr. of fffg for target shooting.The rifle also shoots conicals verywell.The maxi-ball seems to work best for that rifle on deer sized game.
Ive got a TC Renegade with a Green Mountan 32" .54cal. barrel that likes .530" ball,.018" ticked patch with 85gr. of FFG.
Ive never seen one of the CVA's with a smoothbore.Maybe someone else can provide better info on that.

 

[Hawg]

It shouldn't be a smoothbore, maybe the muzzle was coned. I've got a .54 CVA barrel on my Investarms and it shoots very well. Yes it can be done but takes some doing. Even has the patent breech. It depends on the twist whether it's strictly a round ball barrel. It should be either a 1:48 which will handle PRB's or conicals very well or a 1:66 which will handle PRB's excellently but won't do well at all with conicals.

 

[arcticap]

I have a CVA .50 Frontier rifle that's a smoothbore rifle.
It's an older, less common model that came in a black & white box.
Maybe that's what you have but in .54?
It does look like a Hawken with its 1/2 stock & double triggers.
I happily bought it from someone who didn't realize that it was smoothie when he bought it online, so he quickly resold it.
Smoothies are usually easier to load with balls that are undersized by .020 instead of .010 because the barrel doesn't have any rifling grooves to hold the powder fouling and any extra patch material that covers the loaded ball.
It should be capable of shooting a rifle like group out to 50 yards at least.
But tighter patched balls are generally more accurate.
And .520 balls are not as easy to find anymore since Hornady discontinued making them.
However Track of the Wolf sells hand cast balls in .520 & .526.

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(l4...atId=2&subId=25&styleId=58&PageSize=25&Page=2

 

[FrontierGander]

great find! the barrel may be 1:48 or 1:66 maybe an email to CVA with the serial # could help you find what twist it has.

Awesome find though!

 

[mykeal]

Why not just test it with a rod and a cleaning jag?

 

[trigger45]

I did it didnt turn. well gave it back gonna find another barrel for the new englander.