Single Shot Muzzleloading Rifles Blog

Editor’s Note: As a customer-service representative for CVA, Dave Meredith of Norcross, Georgia, talks to blackpowder hunters and enthusiasts from all over the country daily.

One customer called the customer-service line because he couldn’t get his CVA muzzleloader sighted-in. I gave suggestions and advice that would help him get the type of accuracy he wanted out of the CVA rifle he’d purchased.
Finally, the gentleman said, “Look, I know all about sighting-in a rifle. I was trained to shoot in the military.” I told him, “CVA Muzzleloaders are a little different from the rifles you use in the military. In the past, legendary blackpowder hunters, like Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and the early fur traders who opened-up the West, always gave their muzzleloading rifles female names. Now, I’m not trying to insult women because many of them shoot better than men. But women can be particular, and so can blackpowder rifles. Each rifle is an individual, just like each woman, and you have to determine the rifle’s likes and dislikes. Once you know what that rifle prefers, don’t try to change it.

Another guy called and told me, “Last year, I shot 1-1/2-inch groups, but since I’ve changed bullets and powder, my gun’s not shooting the same way any more. What’s wrong with it?” My answer was quite simple, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Shoot the same bullet and powder you’ve used when you shot 1-1/2-inch groups, and more than likely you’ll start shooting that way again.” I always remember what my daddy used to say, “Stay out from under the hood of the car. If there’s nothing wrong with it, leave it alone.”

Question: What’s one of the most-popular questions you get from customers?
Meredith: One of the questions I get most often on the CVA customer-service line is, “Where can I get parts and accessories for my CVA rifle, and why do those same parts and accessories cost more if I buy them directly from CVA than if I buy them from a local dealer?”

Question: Okay, Dave, what’s the answer?
Meredith: We prefer that you purchase parts and accessories from a dealer rather than from us. If we sell parts and accessories cheaper than our dealers, that’s not fair to them. Our dealers all across the nation carry CVA rifles, parts and accessories to take care of the customers in their areas. We’re here to take care of our customers’ problems, and I tell people when they call in, “You can go to one of our dealers and buy these parts and accessories cheaper than I can sell them to you. I’ll even give you the name and the number of the dealer closest to you.” But some people don’t want to go out of their houses to get a part or an accessory. So, if our customers don’t choose to go to a dealer to save money, we still will supply them with the parts and the accessories they need. I want customers to know that I’m not trying to jack-up the prices on him on a part or an accessory and that he can get that part or accessory cheaper somewhere else. But if you need a part today or tomorrow, we have a large number of dealers all over the country who can get those products to you more quickly and less expensively than we can. If you don’t know where a dealer’s located near your home, you can visit our website and click on “Dealers.” Most of the big-box stores and mail-order houses also carry CVA rifle parts and accessories.

Question: If my CVA rifle isn’t performing as it should, what should I do?
Meredith: Call the CVA customer-service line at 770-449-4687. Many times the problem can be fixed with a small adjustment on your rifle that we can help you do over the phone. If we can’t solve the problem over the phone, we may suggest you box-up the rifle, fill out the CVA Repair Form to tell us what the problem is, and mail the gun and the repair form directly to CVA. We’ll be more than happy to look at the rifle and determine the problem. If there’s a charge, we’ll let you know the price before we repair it. If there’s not a charge, we’ll repair the gun and return it to you. Once you get the gun back, take it out, load it properly and ensure we’ve fixed it to your satisfaction. The worst thing you can do is take that gun out of the box, put it in a closet or a gun safe and not shoot it until the day you’re ready to hunt. If we haven’t solved your problem, the sooner we know about it, the quicker we can tell you what to do to make your CVA muzzleloading rifle all you’ve hoped it will be. We always try to repair the gun when we get it. However, we may not have clearly understood the problem, or maybe the gun has two problems, and you’ve just told us about one. We want you to be happy and satisfied with your CVA rifle for as long as you own it, and we want to do everything we can to help you and that gun perform an optimal level. So, if you have a problem, call the CVA customer-service line. Any of the service technicians can help you, because they shoot CVA muzzleloading rifles and hunt with them.

Editor’s Note: Terry Oertwig, a member of the CVA Pro Staff Team, took the trip of a lifetime to Africa. The only gun he carried with him was the CVA Electra. Oertwig liked the light weight of the gun, the accuracy of the Electra out to 300 yards and the fact that he diOertwig liked the light weight of the gun, the accuracy of the Electra out to 300 yards and the fact that he didn’t have to take primers through the airport.dn’t have to take primers through the airport. “I wanted a dependable rifle that was extremely accurate for this hunt of a lifetime, and I had faith in the Electra,” Oertwig says.

One of the most-elusive animals I hunted in Africa was the gemsbok. When we first spotted a gemsbok, we had to first of all determine which way the wind was blowing, and then circle the animal to get the wind in our favor to make our stalk. While we were trying to approach the gemsbok, we spotted three wildebeests sleeping in a small hole in the ground. The guide saw them first and then motioned for us to back-up and skirt-around the wildebeests in hopes that we wouldn’t spook them. We knew if we did that they would spook the gemsbok. As we tried to get around the wildebeests, the wind changed, and the wildebeests smelled us. They jumped up and ran away from us and past the gemsbok. The gemsbok started watching the wildebeests trying to determine what had spooked them. As the gemsbok became more curious, he walked out of the bush where he had been standing and turned broadside at about 60 yards. Totally unaware of our presence, he kept watching the wildebeests. I had my shooting sticks with me, because we knew we would have to crawl to get as close as we could to the gemsbok. I rested my Electra on my shooting sticks and aimed through the scope. Once I squeezed the trigger, the animal dropped in his tracks. Because the wind was blowing to us, the burnt powder coming out of the barrel blew into my face after the shot, and I couldn’t tell what had happened. But my tracker and my guide were jumping up and down and saying, “He dropped in his tracks!” The average gemsbok generally weighs between 600 and 700 pounds. My guide was really impressed that the CVA Electra had delivered that much knock-down power.

That night when I returned to camp, I simply cleaned the bore of the Electra and brushed the prongs on the electronic-ignition system. However, I didn’t have to take the breech plug out and give the rifle a thorough cleaning, which was one of the advantages of the Electra. The Electra burns the powder so cleanly that you only need half the amount of time and half the number of patches to clean it as you do a conventional inline rifle that uses a cap for a primer. Each day I’d take a wet patch, swab it down the barrel, turn the patch over swab it down the barrel again and then take a dry patch and go down the barrel and back. Then my Electra was clean and ready for the next day. That’s all the cleaning my Electra got for 5 days of hunting. I took six animals in Africa during 4 days. I never took the CVA muzzleloader apart and thoroughly cleaned it, until I returned home to Missouri from Africa.

You have to remember that the ignition system on the Electra ignites the powder so efficiently that the powder burns cleaner than it does in most-other blackpowder rifles. The arc that’s used to ignite the powder is about 10-times hotter than a 209 primer, and the arc doesn’t have the push that the 209 primer has. That push causes the powder to ignite as it’s moving up the barrel. Because the electrodes sit right against the powder in the Electra, you get a complete start on the bottom of your powder where the powder burns cleaner. The other advantage you have is that the Electra has a sealed breech, so there’s no hole in it. Therefore with a 26-inch barrel, I’m getting 50- to 80-feet-per-second more velocity out of the barrel than I get out of my other muzzleloading rifles that have 2-inch-longer barrels.

To learn more about African safaris and Claude and Jill Kleynhans, go to www.mafigeni.com.

You’ve found your way to the Single Shot & Muzzleloading Rifles blog – congratulations! This blog is brought to you by CVA, the makers of the Apex line of muzzleloaders. Here we will be discussing the ins and outs of all single shot & blackpowder rifles. You can expect posts for both beginners and experts here, but be warned, even if a post is for beginners the experts may learn a thing or two!

Make sure to leave us any suggestions in the comments, especially if you have any questions about CVA muzzleloaders (or any other brand, really). We would love to take some of your questions and turn them into full blown blog posts, so ask anything your muzzleloading heart desires!