Traditions/CVA "Kentucky" kit

[James Kelly]

Has anyone put one of these together & done without that little 0.079" thick brass "spacer" where the two stock halves fit together?

I gather those two stock halves are meant to stay together only because they are both pinned & screwed to the barrel. I gonna glue 'em

Really, I'm just looking for Moral Support as I go ahead & replace the brass thingy with the wrong thickness maple spacer & glue those fine stock halves together.

Trying to make this kit into a Faux Leman Indian rifle, percussion. I have a Leman capbox, the all-brass tacks, a paintbrush for the stripes & deer rawhide to cover my mistakes.

As my workshop skills have been left fallow for several decades now, I just might need one more deer.

[Uncle Russ]

You know James, the more I see of those, with what appears to be a "brass shim", I have to wonder what its purpose is, rather than just easy / easier breakdown for shipping.
Did a bean-counter come up with this, or does it serve a purpose.

Now, on the other end of this wide spectrum of front-loaders , the few I actually know of shoot like a house-on-fire!
The few I've seen have a 1:66 twist which appears to be about ideal for the .50 cal patched round ball because they really shoot well.

My grandson has one and I've shot it a few times.
These lightweight little guns hold good, feel good, and you can actually call your shots when the shot breaks. And that, in my mind is a big plus.
If there is a real problem that I  personally noticed right off, it would be the sights. I think I would replace that factory rear sight, maybe the front one too, but someone else may like that same sight, my grandson seems to have no problem whatsoever with it.

Let us know what you decide to do.
I'm seriously thinking about trying one of these myself.

I know..........I've read and heard all the horror stories, both pro and con about soft parts, weak springs, and on and on, but at my age you learn to take such things with a grain of salt until you witness it with your own eyes.
If they are all as good as the one my grandson has been shooting, for about 3 maybe 4 years now, I would not hesitate one minute to own one.

Uncle Russ..

[James Kelly]

RussB, I would say that Traditions is the ideal rifle for your grandson. My first, hopefully of two, is only 2-1/3, lives about 2000 miles West & 7000 feet up.

I've worked as a metallurgist since 1963, short story is I am very impressed with the ability of those Spanish barrels to hold together under torture. That is why I got one. I'm glad to hear you confirm that they shoot well.

As far as the shim, I suspect it enables them to consume fewer board-metres of beech in making their stocks. Yeah - Bean Counter.
 
The lock internals are not so impressive, but Track o' the Wolf has an L&R replacement lock if necessary.

Opening day, Tigres take preferrence this pm

[Hank in WV]

I'm thinking it's much easier to get two shorter pieces of useable wood out of any section of tree than it is just one longer one. Unfortunately the two pieces often are not from the same tree and are different in color. As far as shooting, in this day and age, unless you get a factory second or blemish, I don't think any major company makes a bad barrel.

[Winter Hawk]

I have seen where the brass shim was replaced with one of wood, just to make the forearm line up properly with the underlugs, I believe.  I have one of the CVA kits in the garage, waiting for me to get busy with building it.  I hope to surprise my son with it on his birthday in August (he'll turn 38, for those who are interested). 

I haven't seen Captchee on here since I joined, but he has been on the TradRag site.  Here is a link to what he did with one of these:  http://tradrag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=5418  Further down someone asked about replacing the metal spacer with wood, and his reply.

~WH~

[James Kelly]

Thanks, W Hawk, forgot to read Captchee to the end.
I've not made a gun since - forget it - so each bloody time I pick up a tool it is a (re)learning experience. Any tool.  OK, here is my spacer made of 1/8" maple from Woodcraft Supply. Actual measured thickness is 0.147 - 0.149. Had a reason to file points on those little pins, sure I remember why, just don't want to tell you.

Lock works, trigger plate well below the surface. I re-fit that lovely cast forend cap & now to begin filingraspingfilingrasping things down a bit. Meanwhile I'm looking ahead to tack patterns.

[Ohio Joe]

James, I put a few of these rifles together over the years for friends. I had some old aluminum antenna tubing that fit the ramrod hole, so I just cut it and epoxied it in from the rear entry thimble to the end of the breech/barrel channel (used the pins as well with some epoxy on them and the shim), set the barrel in the channel with some lite plastic between the two, wrapped the barrel to the stock over night. Results were good the next day and it was like a solid one piece stock of wood after that.

However, there's no reason your way wouldn't work just fine. 

These really aren't bad rifles at all, and can be a fun project.