CVA Staghorn

Earlier I said I had bought a used CVA Staghorn in .50 caliber but never did get around to an update. Well, here it is many months later so I suppose a few details are in order.

I took the gun out and discovered that it was sighted in dead on at 100 yards. I fired it about 10 times, wiping the barrel every 3rd or so shot, and ended up with a group of about 2 1/2-3" for all shots. Very nice for an inexpensive muzzleloader. I settled on a load of 85 grains of Pyrodex pushing 245 gr. Powerbelt bullets. I have not chronagraphed this load as of yet, but it has a very good feel to it. As this is a very light rifle with its synthetic stock, it will give you a bit of a push, but with this load, my recoil-sensitive Wife can handle it with no pain.

And it does the job. I shot a 4 point that dressed at 140 lbs at a range of 90 yards on the second day of Muzzleloader season. I found good blood for about twenty yards then lost the trail in the darkness, having to come back early the next morning. I found the deer about 60 yards from where I shot him, hit a bit higher and back than where I wanted. The bullet performed well, clean through shot passing through ribs on each side and doing good damage with an exit wound about 2" in diameter.

My next deer came a few weeks later, a 6 point at 65 yards that also dressed about 140 pounds. This was a double lung shot with an exit wound about 3" and the deer only traveled maybe 40 yards from where he was hit, albeit in a circular route that was about 60-70 yards long. However on this deer, as it was so thick, I couldn't find him and had to go buy a Primos Bloodstalker flashlight, which took me right to him.

I ended the year with an 8 point which dressed at 170 lbs. Range was about 40 yards but I didn't measure this time. Again a double lung shot that passed through and the deer ran about 20-30 yards. And again the exit wound was about 3".

So what's the verdict? Well, I filled the freezer with three, one shot kills at average range. These were the only deer I killed last year and I only hunted with this muzzleloader during the gun seasons. I intend to use it for my meat-getter during muzzleloader season this year, but I will be taking the T/C Hawken out as well, and will probably go back to handgun hunting for most of gun season unless I'm hunting some big fields, then I'll take one of the smokeless rifles out. But not because the CVA Staghorn has any shortcomings. I used it last season for the entire year just for the heck of it.

In fact, I did it mainly because I keep reading internet articles bashing CVA firearms, saying they aren't safe, aren't accurate, aren't capable. Well, the difference between me and the writers of those articles is that I'm not trying to sell you someone else's blackpowder guns. Not that I don't love my Thompson, but the CVA does the job just fine. I hunt everything I can and do so with a wide variety of firearms and my trusty PSE Pulsar Express, (circa 1984ish). I have my choice of plenty of firearms, but the performance of this CVA Staghorn was everything it needed to be.

And I was impressed with the performance of the Powerbelt bullet. I was initially inclined to up the powder charge in a search for some more velocity. But that's just not needed, and probably negligible anyway. I'm perfectly comfortable out to 150 yards with this gun and load. Shot placement is of far more importance than hyper-velocity, so worry more about practicing to become a good shot than trying to compensate with the latest super bullet or load.

My conclusion is that this CVA rifle is a good value for the money. I own a few CVA blackpowder handguns which always were just fine and I will be buying more CVA firearms. In fact as my Wife is finishing up her Hunter's Safety Course so she can be ready for hunting season this year, I'm planning to buy her a CVA Apex system to complement the Marlin 336 in .44 Magnum I gave her for Valentine's Day.

Ponderous

Sometimes you have to sit and wonder. Wonder, maybe even ponder. And that doesn't even rhyme. Why is that? They're spelled almost the same, wouldn't life make more sense if wonder and ponder, which are spelled almost exactly alike and even mean similar things, wouldn't life make much more sense if they rhymed?

But anyway, in the end, what does it matter. In the end your body becomes food for the worm and whatever it is that makes us human goes off somewhere to do something.

So that's something to ponder, what does happen when that last gasp of life on Earth slips between the lips? What becomes of the immutable presence that all people have? Granted, some need to be muted, but still, aside from boy band members and writers for sit-coms, there is some sort of soul that isn't ready to rest.

Because after a lifetime on this planet, a soul really needs a break from the abuse heaped upon it. So what to do then?

Now I for one am quite certain in God and all that the Bible teaches us. But I think that a Creator that would give us such an inquisitive nature and a yearning for life would have something interesting planned for that time after the husk falls to the mulch pile.

My figuring is that our personalities are a reflection of our souls. I figure that your personality stays with your soul and has a bearing in what goes on later. Like maybe some hick like me gets to float around the universe, checking stuff out. Maybe even flinging an arrow at some crazy 9 legged deer on the planet Herpetroid in the far away galaxy of Whatchamacallit. Maybe if your true heart's desire is to paint, you get to play with new colors, even new dimensions, on a canvas woven by Angels.

I dunno.

So I sit here and ponder, and wonder, at the beautiful possibilities of life.