Once, back in 1975 or so when I didn't know much about muzzle-loading rifles, I swapped a long Dixie rifle for one of these in kit form. When I got it home I thought "what have I done now?" I'd never put a kit together before. The learning experience came out OK, and the rifle shot both round balls and maxi's very well indeed. Vermont didn't have a muzzle loader season then, but a couple of years there I did take it out on the final day of rifle season but never did get a deer. I did fire it off in the freezing rain a couple of times to empty it for the year, after an all day hunt in miserable weather. It fired fine. Years later, when I moved to where I live now, work requirements hadn't been letting me do much ML hunting, but I did loan this gun out to a local guy who plows my driveway. He's one of these country boys who shuts his service station down and gets deer about every year. Next thing I knew he had nailed a big doe during the ML season, and kept begging me to sell him my gun. This went on for about 3 years and an equal number of deer. I eventually swapped him something for that gun. I've read good and bad about these--but that Mountain Rifle of mine was reliable and accurate--and a lot better than the left-hand Lyman Great Plains Rifle that sits in my closet now. Like anything, there's good ones and bad ones in about every make of rifle. My experience with the old CVA Mountain Rifle was good--and my friend still has it. He eventually bought an inline, experienced some misfires, and then went back to the Mountain Rifle and has been whacking down deer with it ever since.
