Told you so!

Well, I may not be Nostradamus, but I can predict not keeping up with a blog. Sorry to my one subscriber Fedak. I see you haven't been keeping up either.

I decided to chronicle the restoration of my Grandpa Johnson's hunting muzzle loader on this blog so that my family could see it's transformation from just a heavy gun in the corner to a living breathing part of my grandfather that I take with me on my many trips to the woods. I started hunting as of recently and I had never had the chance to hunt with him when he was alive. He has shaped me in more ways than even I understand. That is why I wanted to bring this piece of him back to life and make it part of mine.

From what I know, he built this CVA Mountain Rifle from a kit probably some time in the late seventies or early eighties. This just reinforces my memories of him in that he liked to build things and was good with his hands. This rifle also reminds me of his interest in times gone by. I remember the Time Life book series of the Old West that he had and the countless days that my brother Adam and I would look through them in amazement as young boys. So words cannot express how happy I was to inherit this gun of his from my grandmother the other weekend.

I have researched a lot of information on this muzzle loader to find out if it was even possible to bring it back to shooting form and to my present surprise, it is! So that is what I intend to do.
Here is a picture of it as I got it.


When I looked at it originally I didn't know it the barrel would ever be OK to fire again due to the rust inside, but I quickly learned that it would just take a little work to have it back in shooting shape. There is also surface rust in a few other places that I will have to take care of, but for that most part it isn't too bad. It is complete except for the ramrod is missing.

I want to bring this gun back to life in a way that keeps things pretty much as they are so I do not loose that special part of this rifle put in by my grandpa. I will break it completely down and clean all of the parts. I will try to preserve the already stained wood stock that has oil marks from my grandpa's hands. I will also just try to touch up the barrel bluing to keep away new rust. I will however make a drastic change in the ignition system. I am going to convert this percussion gun to a flintlock because I live in PA and can only hunt with such a gun during our late muzzle loader season.


STEP 1 - Break Down

I completely broke down the gun today and bagged all of the pieces for safe keeping. After inspecting all of the parts, I think that I will only have to purchase a couple of things to make this project work.

They are:

• Wooden ramrod with ends
• Replacement flintlock
• Vent hole liner

All other parts look very serviceable and just need a thorough cleaning.


Step 2 - Barrel Cleaning

After several late nights of Internet research, I decided to try and clean the rust from the barrel with some solvent, brass bore brush and patch/jag. I found out in a hurry that is going to take some elbow grease to get done right. I also found out that I am in need of a bore light so that I can really inspect the barrel and its' rifling. I will check back in when I have cleaned the barrel well enough to shoot. I will put it back together and try and run about 25 or so round balls through it and see how the rust issue is then. It seems like the patch/jag slide through fairly easy now so I am optimistic. I will post more as I move further along.