Poor ignition in .54 CVA Hawken rifle

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fonestar

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So I have 2 CVA ML rifles... a Hawken in 54 made in Spain and a CVA Bobcat in 50.

The CVA Bobcat goes BOOM each and every time you load it and pull the trigger. The CVA Hawken in 54 usually takes 2, 3 or even 4 pulls of the trigger before it will go BOOM.

Now what's funny is that if you just put a cap on the 54 and pull the trigger it will blow the cap each and every time. I am being sure to give the rifle a good thwack to get some Pyrodex into the channel. Does this sound like it could be resolved by drilling out the nipple? I know that Pyrodex + No. 11 caps + Side Hammer aren't the greatest combo, but it's what I have to work with and it seems to work great with the CVA Bobcat.
 
What is your history with it? New, new to you, or had it for awhile; if the latter, did it work before?

in my experience this is TYPICALLY one of three things:

1) dirty nipple and/or or channel. Pull nipple and really scrub the channel out. Scrape it.
2) bad caps. Remingtons have done this to me before. The caps fire but not enough heat.
3) damp powder... if it is really humid out (pouring rain and/or really humid out just before or after) I've also had this happen with no other good explanation. We can get a LOT of rain/precip up here though :)

I should add all I ever use is Goex so Pyrodex would probably magnify these issues; resolutions are the same.
 
Have you scraped the channel out? I mean get right in there, not just a soak and quick brush. I had a similar problem a couple years ago, test caps would even move grass at the muzzle but it kept misfiring very much as you describe. I spent some time digging and scraping that channel between the nipple and the breech and the problem went away. I have many, many rounds through mine (a Lyman GPR but same idea).
 
Use a coat hanger or something solid. Protect the nipple threads with tape or something like that. If the fouling gets bad enough, then Q-tips won't break up the carbon and you end up with too much constriction. I believe that CVA's have an odd angle to their firing pin channels as well which may compound the problems.

I just remembered that I also used a piece of flat bar and scraped the breech face, IIRC there was some carbon buildup on there too. That was many thousands of rounds fired at that point.
 
I used a long chunk of flat bar (1/2" wide or so) from the muzzle end. Wrapped it with tape or something at a few points, and turned/dropped it. I got chunks of carbon out, as I recall.

BUT the firing channel was also quite dirty, even though I always cleaned it. I believe that was the main issue. It's been a few years but I make a point now of scraping that channel and haven't had that problem again. Have experienced weak caps and as I say, damp powder but ruled that out and solved those problems as I had them.
 
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Okay... I doubt it's that bad. The rifle was made in 1988 but judging from the condition I'd say it's never been, or barely been shot before. And I have less than 100 rounds through it so far.

I will try really scraping it out and let you know how that worked tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestions!
 
fonestar said:
Okay... I doubt it's that bad. The rifle was made in 1988 but judging from the condition I'd say it's never been, or barely been shot before. And I have less than 100 rounds through it so far.

I will try really scraping it out and let you know how that worked tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestions!
Click to expand...

If it has been sitting, then it is possible there is some dust or corrosion in there (wouldn't be anything to worry about, just needs to be cleaned out). Cleaning it out as I describe should resolve that as well as carbon build up.

Good luck, I hope it works for you!
 
Understood - I'm sure you can get it there. CVA as I recall uses a patent breech that may be compounding all these problems; but keeping it very clean and making sure the powder is close to the cap (as you describe in your first post) should together get you there.

NCBB
 
The CVA flash channel looks like a broken dog's leg, and a HARD build-up inside it is likely the cause of the misfires. A fellow shooter here had a similar problem after only ten shots of a new gun, again, with Pyrodex RS rather than the real thing. Poking it with a damp Q-tip will only make the crud giggle - as suggested above you need to be vigorous with a piece of old wire coat-hanger. That crud gets as hard as h*ll, and every time you fire you are just baking it harder. Getting a new nipple from one of the after-market makes would also be a good idea - can't recall the brand right now, but folks here with a less-clouded brain will help you with than one. The supplied item is often pretty poorly made anyhow, and might only last a couple of hundred shots before it starts blowing the hammer back on you.

That reference to a 'patent breech' might just be confungling you - all it means is that the breech end of the barrel - the chamber - is of smaller diameter than the bore, in order to increase the efficiency of the burning propellant. It is also known as 'high-pressure' breech, and was a commonplace feature of many of the long-range percussion match rifles from the middle 1850's on.

tac
 
My wife's traditions deer hunter had a similar problem and we finally fixed it lining up the hammer and nipple. It turns out that the hammer was not hitting square on the nipple. I hag to shim the hammer plate out at the bottom just a hair, it never misfired again.
 
Some spanish percussion guns use a drum which screws almost all of the way through the barrel. That means that they require a small hole in the side of the drum (inside the barrel) to get the flame to the powder. The small hole fouls fairly easily and quickly and gives lots of misfires. Breaches with a snail and those with drums which screw only through one side of the barrel allow powder to sit much closer to the source of ignition and for that reason are much more dependable in ignition. Spanish flintlocks have the threaded part of the drum screwed almost all the way through the barrel also and that piece is threaded internally to accept the vent liner. As with the percussion gun, very little if any powder makes it close to the vent liner and again poor ignition.

You also need to be away of that bushing if you ever try to remove the breach plug because the plug cannot be unscrewed without removing the bushing first

cheers mooncoon
 
Okay I have not shot the thing again yet... but I am using the small end of a small round file to feel around in the drum. It feels like there's a small lip where the drum meets the barrel. As a test, I dumped 60grn of FFFG down there without the screw on the drum, just my finger plugging it. Almost no powder is making it into the drum. Even after a healthy smack and removing my finger, still almost no powder. I think this small lip is stopping anything from entering the drum.
 
No pics. Scraped it out good, tried some other nipples and it was the same story. Got sick of tinkering with it and traded it for some other things...

I'd like to get another .54 but I will make it something by TC or better quality maker...
 
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