CVA Plainsman

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deerslayer303

New member
Hey Guys,
I have the opportunity to purchase one of these cheap. I figure it may be a fun shooter and a beat around in the woods rifle. I'm having trouble finding a twist rate. The net says mostly 1:48 but I've found mention of 1:28. Do any of you own one of these. I may have to check the twist myself. CVA has no mention of these on their website any longer so I think they have been out of production for some time. Are these rifles another Investarms produced for CVA? Its cheap enough so at any rate I may buy it if the bore looks good and see what kinda lead she likes to sling. :)
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wogpotter

New member
They also had a big selection with a 1:66 twist.

I looked in my old CVA catalog but it isn't listed.

I assume you know the old trick with a patch & ramrod for working out unknown twist rates?

What caliber is it?
 
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swathdiver

New member
The 1990 CVA catalog shows the twist as 1:48 for the Plainsman. The photograph of the rifle is a dead ringer for yours, meaning, it is likely to be within a year or two of the catalog date before any changes were made.
 
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wogpotter

New member
If it is a 1:48 its supposed to be "universal" taking PRB & maxi balls about evenly.
With my very similar CVA Hawken Carbine I find it prefers PRB's over Lee REAL's by a considerable margin.

Bets load so far has been 75 Gr of Ffg with a .490 RB & a 10 thou patch. Definitely a nice cheap woods plinking load.

Here's the 100yd test target.
Definitely "minute of Bambi".
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FrontierGander

New member
awesome little rifles! I had one in flinter and that sucker was just scary accurate at 100 yards with 70gr 3f goex and a 405gr powerbelt.
 
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deerslayer303

New member
Thank alot guys for the replies. I went and snatched her up for a single Franklin. I have to say ME LIKEY!! Its really light and shoulders well. The sights are very crude nothing like the nice buckhorn sight I'm used to but hey its a fraction of the price, some bright orange paint on the front blade should work. I think its light weight will be murder on my shoulder with a conical. I'll try some PRB and some powerbelts first as suggested. Then I'll take it out and see if I can knock a hole in a whitetail with it.
 
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wogpotter

New member
CVA imported their rifles from Spain, They are not Investarms.
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True!
If you luck out with an early enough one though the barrel might just be a Green Mountain one! They switched to the Spanish-made barrels eventually, but the early ones weren't Spanish.

Don't be worried about recoil my carbine is a *****cat with RB's & 70 Gr.
(I upgraded the sights a little too, once I realized how accurate it could be.)
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Pahoo

New member
Tang sight ???

wogpotter
By any chance, is that an Enfield vernier sight, you mounted on the tang? ... :confused:

Be Safe !!!
 
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FrontierGander

New member
You're thinking Douglas barrel, not GM. Only the very early mountain rifles had the Douglas for a few years before going to the spanish barrel, which still is a heck of a shooter.
 
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wogpotter

New member
By any chance, is that an Enfield vernier sight, you mounted on the tang?
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Oh, what sharp eye you have Gramma!:)

Its actually one of those "windage adjustable" ones that Sarco was jobbing out a while back. They didn't tell you that it came with this odd base that attached to any flat surface with 2 screws before you go to the usual Lee-Enfield mounting pivot.;)

A bit of experimenting & I had an elevation & windage adjustable vernier ladder sight with adjustable peepholes, for under 60 bucks! It even zeroes at 50 Yds so I can switch from the open notch to a peep at 75 Yds!

I laughingly call it my Mini Quigley:eek:
 
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deerslayer303

New member
Very Nice Rifle Wogpotter! ;) In lieu of the Enfield sight do you have any idea whre I might get another rear sight to fit the factory dovetail? I can't wait to get out and shoot this thing.
 
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Pahoo

New member
They are out there !!!

do you have any idea whre I might get another rear sight to fit the factory dovetail?
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They still make them or can still be found, either on tang mount or 3/8" dovetail. You are going to have to go shopping on this but Pedersoli, Lyman, Thompson and Marbles, comes to mind. ..... :)

Be Safe !!!
 
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Captchee

New member
The only two CVA rifle that im aware of that carried US manufactured barrels were the Mountain rifle and a limited , very early production of one piece Kentucky’s . that run was less then 100 or so guns .

All the rest were made by Jukar or Adesa . CVA made your style of rifle in many different models and traditions still carries the line . So you basicly have a , Plainsman , Youth hunter , Deer stocker , deer hunter ……. Ending in the Bobcat , which initially was available with a wood stock and later the synthetic stock .
I don’t recall the plainsman being available in 1 in 28 . I do remember 1/48 and 1/66 .
CVA did offer the bobcat in a 1 /32 , 1/48 and a 1/66. I know that because I bought one of the last 25 blocks of bobcat rifles and it took for ever to get rid of the 1/32

I would also agree with the others in that for the most part , these all were predominantly good shooting rifles . Sure they had this lock and trigger issues like all CVA guns did . But for a 35.00 retail muzzleloader , they shot real well
 
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wogpotter

New member
In my rifle there isn't a dovetail for the rear sight it bolts to the barrel:eek: That is why I went with the tang mounted sight.

The good news is that with a bit of inventiveness & low animal cunning you can fit one of several tang sights to the stock & have a good zero. Check with these guys for a wide selection. Although tang sight prices were prohibitive for use on a cheap rifle as far as I was concerned, hence the "inventive" solution.
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/883/1

There are several pages of different types.
 
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deerslayer303

New member
She printed all over the place

Ok so my new round ball slinger is not shooting Minute of Whitetail just yet. She was all over the place yesterday. Load was .490 swaged ball, .010 lubed patch, 70 grs FFg KIK black powder @ 50 yards. I swabbed to a clean patch after every shot. This load was really easy to get started and seat. So I may move up to a .015 patch. The sights on this thing are VERY crude and I had a hard time seeing the front blade. The last shot I took was at that cross upper right drawn with a sharpie. I said to myself there is no way this thing is that inaccurate. So I removed my safety sunglasses to see the front blade better, and took the shot and I hit very near POA. The trigger pull on this thing was HORRID. I lightened it up today a bunch. I painted the front blade flourescent orange and put some white dots on either side of the shallow rear sight notch and I'm gonna try again. The sights are not adjustable save for filing the blade and drifting them left or right so I am going find some replacement sights. First I gotta figure out what size the dove tail is on the sights that are on it. Anyone know how to measure a dovetail? Do you measure the base? As in the bottom, the widest part of the dovetail? I like the sights Lyman has but they are for a .360 dovetail. I'm not going to any kind of Conical in this thing. I want to get it shooting as good as possible with a roundball. Because thats what I want to shoot deer with.
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