serious do do! H E L P ! ! ! ! !

[moooose102]

ok, its not the first time i have shot or cleaned a m.l. before. but i have never gotten one this dirty before either. i went out today, put 36 rounds through her. cleaning the barrel and the normal stuff is pretty straight forward. but i need advice on the internal mechanicals. there was so much crud all over this thing, that in order to get it clean, i ended up putting solvent down to the insides, where the hammer and trigger mechanism is. now what? how do i make sure all the crud is out, and more importantly, how do i keep all of this stuff from corroding? there are no covers to pull off. everything is assembled by pins. it is a cva optima. the best way to clean this part would seem to me would be spray hot soapy water down it, but how do i keep from all of it turning to rust overnight. the solvent that i did pour down the hammer area is RUSTY DUCK BLACK OFF. should i just spray the heck out of it with conventional gun oil and hope for the best? H E L P !!!

 

[4v50 Gary]

Boil some hot water. Remove the barrel. Get an old t-shirt and wrap it around the barrel. Twist the ends together on a stick and hold it by the stick. Put the nipple end of the barrel into a can. Pour the hot water down the barrel. It will spill out from the nipple into the can. Now, take a ramrod with the jag on it, put a patch on and run it down the bore. When wet, the patch will seal the bore (somewhat) and you can draw water back into the barrel from the nipple (like a pump). You pump the barrel and in so doing, break up the residue and squirt it out through the nipple. Ocassionally pour out the water and start with fresh hot water.

Afterwards, run a dry patch down the bore and check it for signs of residue. Once it comes out clean, run an oily patch down the bore.

Remove the nipple and flush it out, scrubbing the exterior with an old toothbrush. Oil it (lightly).

Oil the exterior.

Reassemble.

 

[Chawbaccer]

Clean the barrel like Gary said. You will have to pull a pin or two, get used to that. You probably have crud down under the lock, that is one or two screws to back out and scrub it with an old tootbrush. I doubt you have any crud any place else important, I never get stuff in the trigger. Just wipe the wood down and apply wax and oil the metal real good after it is dry.

 

[K.A.T.]

102, I'm not familiar with the rifle you speak of, I don't think you should have to get into the trigger area. Start another thread and ask specifically for help with the Optima, someone who owns one will chime in.

 

[Chawbaccer]

Ignore my instructions above. I was thinking side lock. The Optima is a break open similar in apearance to a H&R single shot.

 

[arcticap]

Most current CVA owner's manuals are available as PDF's on this CVA website page:

http://www.cva.com/lifetime.html

There are several listed for the Optima, I found that one is currently a dead link, but the combined Wolf/Optima manual is available for viewing and shows disassembly of the receiver and firing pin. Then there's another manual listed for the Optima Elite.

http://www.cva.com/pdfs/Optima_Wolf_Manual.pdf

Rusty Duck Black Off evaporates quickly and doesn't cause rust.

 

[moooose102]

ARCTICAP thanks for the link! well, i did what i could, and i think it will be alright. after i drowned the trigger area with the rusty duck, i let it sit a few minutes, then i sprayed "gun scrubber" down there, waited about 1/2 hour, then i drowned the area with "superlube" synthetic lubricant and let that drain for about an hour. cleaned all the rest of it as usual. only thing i did new was coat everything with a coating of bore butter. i used to use petroleum, but i really discovered what a mess that makes tonight. you have to clean everything that had contact with petroloeum about 4 times. just so i could get all the gunk off.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Those modern cleaners don't dissolve the salts left behind by blackpowder. Hot water does.

 

[whosyrdaddy]

Tools needed to disassemble CVA Optima action are:

small regular screw driver
#2 Phillips screw driver
6mm Allen socket
1.5mm Allen wrench
pliers
12" socket extension bar
hammer
3/32 nail set and 12d finish nail or drift punch 1/8" or 3/16"
2 pcs of 3/16" bar stock 11/16" long cut from junk drill bit shaft.

First remove barrel, then remove butt-pad with #2 Phillips. Note screws angle slightly upward toward comb. Using 6mm Allen socket and 12" extension bar remove stock bolt and stock from action.

Remove set screw from breeching lever finger knob using 1.5mm Allen wrench and pull knob off with pliers. Pull harder. Harder! Remove hammer extension.

When removing drift pins drive them from the right side to the left side of the gun when viewed from the drivers seat.

Start with the trigger pin (lowest one). Place punch or nail set on pin and strike sharply with hammer. Once started use 3/16" bar stock to drive pin almost through. Note once pin clears trigger assembly hammer spring may push assembly downward. Pull trigger assembly rearward and down to remove.

Note hammer spring position for reassembly. Now remove the hammer pin (center one). You will not need the bar stock for this pin. Set hammer spring aside.

Now remove breech-lock / transfer bar pin (top one). Follow same procedure as with trigger pin using 3/16" bar stock to drive the pin through just far enough that the assembly can be removed. Note the purpose of the bar stock is to hold the parts together during removal and reassembly. Remove breech-lock / transfer bar assembly then remove hammer from frame.

Using small regular screwdriver remove firing pin set screw (located directly above top pin) and firing pin.

Clean, oil, and reassemble.

 

[davecampperry]

My advice is to sell your Caveat Victims Anonymous and buy a real gun, but everybody knows I'm a Rocklock snob. CVAs are like Bic lighters-when they stop working, throw them in the river.

 

[moooose102]

My advice is to sell your Caveat Victims Anonymous and buy a real gun, but everybody knows I'm a Rocklock snob. CVAs are like Bic lighters-when they stop working, throw them in the river.

now there is a really useful reply. why do you bother?

 

[alsaqr]

My advice is to sell your Caveat Victims Anonymous and buy a real gun, but everybody knows I'm a Rocklock snob. CVAs are like Bic lighters-when they stop working, throw them in the river.

Really helpful. Tell me, oh great panjandrum: Why do my cheap old CVA guns shoot just as well as my Knight and my Encore?

 

[K.A.T.]

Dang, Dave, why did you do him like that?

 

[4v50 Gary]

I prefer rockers too, but let's not knock other people's guns. We all have to start somewhere.

 

[davecampperry]

Sorry you couldn't see my tongue in my cheek. Yes we all have to start somewhere, and we can't all have a mentor. Most of us learn by trial and error, and it is an expensive process. The reason early CVAs shoot is that Sharon Barrel Company went bankrupt about the time CVA started. CVA bought all of Sharon barrels in stock. I don't remember how many. I just don't like the modern style, traditional style feels much better to me. If I hurt anyone's feelings, I am profoundly sorry.

 

[hildo]

No cleaning

I am probably among the very few that do not clean the internals of the trigger mechanism.
I am not familiar with this CVA but a trigger mechanism is a trigger mechanism probably.

My blackpowder revolvers are cleaned, except the inside.
However I do throw in lots of peanut oil / olive oil, just what I have at the moment, down the hammer and cylinder bolt. A trail of oil/residue usually is to be seen coming out of the trigger opening.
When a fragmented cap locks the mechanism it is time to take the gun apart. All I have found upto this time is a lot of very oily black crap.
But no rust.

Check the pictures above and you will see what I mean. A lot of residue but no rust.

Hildo

 

[mykeal]

No VISIBLE rust. The black residue could easily be masking significant rust (black will cover and obscure orange).

Actually, the oil held in matrix by the crud has probably been effective with respect to rust prevention. However, it's certainly not doing the action parts any good, and is probably doing considerable damage with regard to accelerated wear on the bearing surfaces.

Rust is not the only enemy of a gun, especially where tight tolerances are important.

 

[hildo]

I can see your concern Mykeal, but after cleaning, still nice metal and that's good enough for me. It would be different when everything would be covered with rust.
Then again, no guarantee that your gun will stay equally nice.
Maybe I'm just lucky.
I just don't feel like disassembling the whole gun after every shooting. Accelerated wear? Maybe, but never had a problem yet after 1500+ rounds through this Walker, it just feels it gets smoother with time. No different feel between a dirty action and a clean one. The oily crud may even work as some kind of self lubricating bearing system
The extra work involved in cleaning the action every time just does not match the possible advantage, for me anyway. I'll stick with my oily crud system and see how it works out. Time will tell.

Hildo

 

[sundance44s]

I don`t clean the innards but once a year eaither ..but I do run hot water through the trigger guard with the hammer back , and flush the crud out every time ...never have a build up that way ...no rust eaither .

 

[hildo]

@Sundance44s
All that water inside the action, combined with some leftover BP residue, isn't that tricky?
How do you get all the moisture out afterwards?

Hildo

 

[sundance44s]

I dry with a hair dryer and then spray wd40 in the trigger guard .