Hey folks,
OK, the story:
Some 15 years ago a friend and I got our hunter saftey cards and decide to take up deer hunting. Right out of the gate we decide to try muzzleloading as well (because up here in New Hampshire you get an extra 2 weeks before the regular gun season starts.) My friend had a neighbor who was unoading 2 CVA caplock guns he had dirt cheap.....in fact he paid $50 for both and let me have one for splitting the cost 50/50. He got first pick (he chose the CVA hawken, mostly because it was smaller/lighter, but as we later learned was in even worse condition than the rifle I got......but I digress.) Anyways, so it was that I found my $25 had gotten me a very VERY beaten and abused CVA Mountain Rifle, .50 cal caplock. And when I say abused I mean it. The lands and grooves....well, let's just say it looked like a gravel road down there. Trying to shoot it was a pointless experiment since even using undersized patches and balls still found loading to be difficult and cleaning darn near impossible do to all the pits, nooks and crannies just holding the fouling in there. The gold patina on the parts had all but disappeared and replaced with light patches of rust. The barrel's exterior was in OK shape, but thankfully only because it was oiled at least occasionally. I am told that the previous owners idea of a cleaning was to run some steel wool on the outside of the barrel, and lord knows looking at the interior he did no cleaning period.
So I tucked the gun into the corner, bought a Lyman Deerstalker and moved on with my life. I looked into possibly getting a new barrel at the time I got it, but CVA was not exactly helpful and the best they could do was get me new wedge pins (one of them was missing....hey, did I mention this gun was badly abused!?!?) I just figured this gun would stay just a story of a mantlepiece gun (and a sadly ugly one at that.)
But recently I was thinking about seeing what I could do about this poor abused gun. I have done a little research and I find that I can get a replacement barrel. I find I can even get a replacement lock (the lock isn't too bad, but it too shows signs of it's past life as the interior parts ar fairly rusty....the lock still works, and when primed goes "SNAP", but like everything else it is broken beat and scarred.) I am thinking of maybe making a project of this and ressurecting this old beast, but I don't know if it is worth it, and here is where I need some sage advice. A replacement barrel would run me about $140 (not even including new sights). A new lock $117. That is $257 in just those two important parts right there. Trigger is, surprisingly in good shape and should only need refinishing. Same goes for the trigger guard, buttplate, barrel tang, and I am figuring if I am going that far I might as well do the patch box fixtures and the wedge pin plates (so that it all looks at least consistent.) I would probably Duracoat those as it would be the easiest (and probably nicest looking) that I could do myslef here at home. So there we have more money to be invested into it. This is quickly adding up well past what I would want to spend on a project that would not be of any real collector value (the replacement parts and refinishing would kill that anyways). The entire purpose would be to bring back the old beastie to a utilitarian "shooter" gun to drag into the deer woods. So with all this said........is this really worth it? I don't mind a little elbow grease work (I have some basic home "smitty" skills, basic tools and am pretty mechanically inclined, and part of the "fun" of the project would be doing the work.) It is just that I don't want to spend a lot of money in the process (since I don't have a lot to begin with.) That is why I am scratching my head about what to do. It would be nice to get her shooting again, but spending more than $150-$200 is just not what I was hoping out of this.
So, what would you do? Ressurect the phoenix, or let the old gal lie?
Brian
