I've never been a fan of CVA products but it seems to me the company has been trying to offer much better products on the higher end of their inline muzzleloader lineup so I thought I would take a chance and try a new Accura.
This was mostly all written very early in October and has been posted elsewhere:
Accura arrived via the FedEx truck late Saturday morning
(Sept 28). I am awaiting scope mounts before trying it out - hopefully Wednesday.
Trigger is exceptionally good with no take up, grit or creep. It would rate excellent except for some overtravel which could be eliminated if one wished to add a screw. I can easily live with it and I'm very picky about triggers. The ofishul DFK scales indicate a pull of 1 lb 10 oz which is very near the claimed pull weight.
Those same scales show the rifle (sans sling) to weigh 6 lb 14 oz. Apparently the CVA weight figure included all accessories. In addition to the sling, the rifle comes with a substantial breech plug tool with a solid rod for torque, filler screws for the empty scope mount holes, a 209 capper-decapper tool, a bullet seater for the ramrod which should be suitable for most pointed bullets, and a small hex wrench for adjusting the iron sights. The hammer extension comes already mounted on the hammer's right side.
The sights look to be of reasonable quality with green rear and red front fiber optics. Positioning of the scope mount holes will allow easy placement of a scope to nearly anyone's liking, including my own. The rear sight sits far enough forward that it would probably allow most to mount typical scopes without having to remove that sight.
The bore looks perfectly done and feels the same after removing all shipping preservative. A .501 conical easily started with thumb pressure and felt consistent as it traveled down the bore. The conical was very lightly and evenly engraved by all 8 lands.
The breech plug is a hex-head type with a slightly concave face. I understand the plug to be identical to that used in the Optima Elite so replacements are readily available. The plug comes with a neat coating of a silver colored anti-seize (which I promptly removed).
Exterior metal finish is very nicely done in a fine matte stainless. The finish appears constant from barrel to receiver section in spite of the difference in metal used.
Removing the forearm allows for take down and reveals the barrel's serial number along with three proof? marks. These markings are unlike those from some earlier CVA inlines and there is no mention of 700 kp/cm².
The barrel includes nicely done fluting. Usable barrel length measured 25.25", sacrificing 3/8" to the recessed crown and another 1.375" to the breech plug (total barrel length of 27"). The internal crown looks very nicely done. The barrel has a couple of unusual touches. The muzzle is slightly radius'd inward at the muzzle, perhaps to shave a bit of weight and achieve a unique appearance. The two ramrod thimbles appear to be made of thin spring steel in blue finish and attach to the barrel by tension as each side sits in a nicely done barrel groove. The thimbles themselves look flimsy by comparison to most but will certainly be adequate. The lack of screws used in their install may allow for a thinner barrel wall. The ramrod included is a thin black-anodized aluminum tube with a pressed in threaded accessory insert on one end, and a bottleneck taper of the other. The bottlenecked portion houses the internally threaded insert which allows the built in extension to be securely retracted or extended. The attached jag actually looks like it would work to hold a patch while providing an end suitable for seating many bullets. As mentioned earlier, there is also an additional seating jag included for bullets with more pointed ends. The rod measures 23.625" but extends to 25.75".
Fit and finish are much better than any other CVA inline I've seen
(excepting one cosmetic blem produced by handling damage at some point before arrival - forward part of the frame, now being fixed). The welds on the barrel lugs are absolutely the best I have seen - the steady hold of a robot "hand" is evidenced. Barrel to frame clearance shows my eyes no gap. The interior of the alloyed frame is equally well done. The rifle's stock finish is black with spiderweb. Toning down the white of the spiderweb would have made for a more subtle appearance - but synthetic stocks are rarely viewed as things of beauty. I would have also preferred not to have a second cheek-piece but can understand the rationale and I'm sure some left-handed shooters appreciate that effort. The stocks have a molded pattern at the areas of grip. The recoil pad is slightly undersized compared to the butt of the stock, leaving a slight step at that junction. I find a slightly undersized pad to be less a problem than one over-sized, but it would be nice if the manufacturers could master the pre-fits.
Pretty much EXACTLY like
If the hammer is cocked, barrel will not release.
Took the Accura out this afternoon - near perfect weather conditions with only the occasional light breeze and very comfortable temperatures. First fired the rifle at ~30yards to see how close my bore-sighting effort had been. Windage was very good but I was hitting about 7" low of my mark using 80 grains by volume of T7 FFg, a 445 grain UC short (my own casts), and Win 209 primers.
I made considerable adjustment upwards on the Leupold 3x9 Vari-X II and fired another load. That one went just below the bull so I prepared for the next shot while my friend Dave drove the target box out to the 100 yard position. Several shots were fired with that load (~10 more) and I found the Leupold's adjustment range was nearly max'd out to get near the bull. I don't know whether it was the limits of the scope's adjustments, not such good cast bullets, or if the rifling is too deep for good results with my conicals... but, regardless of the reason, I couldn't get consistent behavior from those conicals so gave up on them for the day.
I had brought along some 200 grain XTPs, blue MMP sabots, and a jug of BH209. After swabbing the bore with a couple of patches soaked with MAP and then several dry patches, I adjusted the scope's settings downward considerably anticipating the flatter trajectory.
My load then consisted of 90 grains by volume of the BH209, the little XTPs in blue sabot, and the same primers. Was surprised to find the first shot with that load was still quite high. After 4 or 5 more shots followed by scope adjustments, I was ready to try for a group. The last of those adjustment shots is shown along with the group below.
Have to say I am quite pleased with that level of accuracy and it's good to know that I CAN still shoot a decent group on a good day.
Dave had gone down and taped over my UC short shots and I guess I was firing at a target with tape over a hole (didn't realize it until looking at this picture). I just might have to re-think my opinion of the BH209.
There was almost no blowback as evidenced by the pictures below. These were taken after firing ~12 rounds with T7 FFg and I believe a total of 9 rounds with the BH209. Cleanup was easy as even the breech plug on this rifle cleaned up with relative ease.
My breech plug was wrapped with yellow Teflon tape and had a light coating of grease over the tape. I believe that omitting the grease would have prevented the little residue that did make it to the action. You can see a bit of the tape in the above picture.
Looking at the face of the action below, it appears next to nothing escaped around the primer.
Next time out, I'm going to try some of Batchief's cast boolits as well as some of Bull Shop's. I really don't understand why my own would not group... unless I had a batch of alloy in the pot that is too hard to fully obturate in the bore. I'm going to leave the setup sighted just where it is though.
Note: CVA customer service has been very cooperative and is currently replacing the cosmetically damaged frame at no cost to me. The blem was not at all a functional problem but irked me everytime I looked at it.
