Traditional Muzzleloading Association
Shooting Traditional Firearms and Weapons => General Interest => Topic started by: BGRooster1 on August 13, 2012, 02:12:20 PM
-
Does anyone have one of these pistols ? Is it basically a Traditions Crockett pistol ? I understand the trigger is no very good , is it possible to make it better ?
-
This must be a very rare pistol . I thought for certain that someone here would have something to say about these CVA pistols .
Are the Pioneer pistols generally good ?
-
I saw a couple 20+ years ago. Maybe longer, come to think of it. They are pretty typical of the factory made muzzleloading guns of that era. If it's still in good condition I wouldn't hesitate to shoot it. It might be very accurate. Try 20-25 grains of FFFg. CVA didn't build bad guns back then by any means. I had a CVA Mountain Rifle that was a tack driver. It was a good enough shooter that I took time to correct the things about it that bugged me. Like the nose cap that was held on by screws. I cast a new one. The ramrod ferrules were also held on by screws with holes in the outer side of the ferrule to allow tightening of the screws. I made new ferrules and sweat soldered them into place. Shoot your pistol and enjoy it. Let us know how it does.
Storm
-
Search our site for .32 cal posts,one of our members has one and was asking about loads. I forget his name, but I can see his avatar in my minds eye !
-
Thanks guys . I have been looking at one , don't have one at the moment . It's kind of pricey but has not been used .
-
Sorry , I just saw this thread .
I have had a couple through the years .
They have the same issues that most CVA pieces have .
Poor lock quality , soft lock plates and weak main springs
Improperly set triggers
Beech stocks
Over all though not bad shooters .
Whats funny is the price often being ask anymore for just about any CVA .
As to your trigger issue . Most times this is a combination of trigger placement and lock issues . The result is a very heavy trigger pull .
What you can do is pull the lock and look at the tumbler . Later CVA tumblers have a full cock engagement screw which allows you to reduce the depth that the sear engages the full cock notch . Just be careful you don’t turn it to far and thus not get good engagement of the sear . If you lock doesn’t have that screw , then you can simply swap out the tumbler from a CVA lock that does .
With the trigger , the issue is in the location of the pivot point . CVA used a 1 minus location . In other words the distance from the pivot to the sear is often equal or greater then the distance to the finger area of the trigger . This makes for a very hard trigger pull.
IE its an effect of leverage.
The other issue is that they did not set the trigger deep enough . So what you get is a lot of free play in the trigger . IE no mater if the lock is cocked or not , the trigger moves forward and back .
To fix that issue , what you need is a small wire spring . CVA applied this spring to later guns just prior to their shutting down their traditional product lines .
Is simply a piece of 1/64 piano wire . A small hole is drilled in the trigger bar and another drilled in the pivot perch right next to the trigger plate . This small spring now hold the trigger back with very little resistance . So when you put the lock in , you have to hold the trigger forward just alittle . Once the lock is in place and you let go of the trigger , the trigger then comes back to full contact with the sear arm .
Thus you have full engagement of the trigger to the sear arm and no slop in the trigger .
Know this does not change how heavy the trigger is .
To fix that you can work over the tumbler full cock . Which isn’t a good idea unless you know what your doing . that’s why they came out with the engagement screw .
The best and safest way IMO is to adjust the trigger placement.
To do that , you need to know which trigger plate you have .
CVA used 2 different plates
a) plate has a trigger pivot perch on top of the trigger plate
b) plate has the trigger pined through the trigger plate itself . This is the most common seen
Not much you can do with if you have (a) but to change out the trigger to one with a front lobe, which allows you then re drill the trigger so that it moves back .
With (b) you can simply remove the trigger pivot pin and re drill its location back alittle so as to allow the trigger bar to contact the sear at a point that’s less of a distance from the pivot.
Again it’s a mater of leverage. IE you want the distance from the pivot , to the point where you apply pressure , to be greater then the distance from the pivot to the object your trying to move .
Now if you want to get the most out of one of these pistols here is what I would do
A) change out the lock to one that has a fly on the tumbler . This allows you to then use a single set trigger. So basically you looking at either one of the L&R replacement locks. ”which will run you more then what the CVA is worth money wise ”
OR
Watch for and pick up a traditions lock from a Traditions that had double set triggers .
OR change out the tumbler to one of traditions tumblers that has a fly
B) change out the trigger to a single set trigger
C) change out the trigger guard to one for a dueling pistol which has a finger hook . You will be surprised at how the addition of that hook will steady up your hold
D) double check the crown of the barrel . Make sure its even and smooth , with no burrs where the rifling enters the crown .
If the barrel doesn’t have a crown , then crown it .
By doing the above , what you end up with is something much closer to an actual dueling pistol that’s light and quick in the trigger . Change out the lock to one of the L&R replacment locks and you will also have a pistol that’s fast in the action
-
captchee ,sounds like CVA's are pretty much all predictable on what needs to be done with them to make better shooters out of them.
I have a .50 cal. Frontier I put together from a kit and a .54 Frontier Hunter . Nice little woods guns . They are not anything special , just get done what I need them to do.
Thanks to everyone for adding to this topic.
I had answered in the quick reply but it never showed up on the forum . That was a day or so ago.