Free 50 cal.

I was given this gun today from my brother he knows nothing about it left behind in a rental. SPI Connectiout valley arms made in Spain. Buckhorn magnum 50 cal 1.28 twist. I was wondering if anyone has any information on this gun, it’s got some surface rust on barrel and looks full of dust inside the barrel. You think it’s safe to shoot with a good cleaning?

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Clean ‘er up and let ‘er bark!

Absolutely. It’s a muzzle loader, do some homework on how to load it up, safety first. Surface rust is not a problem, take some brass wool and any flavor of oil to it, run a few patches through the barrel (not likely dust, it’s probably un-burned powder).

You might want to run it past your local law enforcement to see if it has been reported as stolen.

Huntindave wrote:

You might want to run it past your local law enforcement to see if it has been reported as stolen.

Good idea

I left an inline of mine uncleaned and the bore got really, really rusty. I worked a bronze brush through it many, many times with penetrating oil and got most of the rust out. The barrel was pitted. I thought the gun was ruined. It is a Knight Muzzleloader, with Green Mountain barrel. I had good mounts and rings on it and a decent although not super high dollar 3-9×40 scope and had witnesses when I shot a 3 shot clover leaf at 200 yards off a bench of course. Well I had my gunsmith look at it and he said it was safe so I shot it. It was still a shooter! It takes longer to clean now, but is still a serviceable ML. Keep in mind, the trigger mechanism, safety system, and the like were not rusted. So perhaps clean it up, and then have it examined by a competent gunsmith and let them decide. I will say this, and no offense is intended. Those Green Mountain barrels are really high quality steel. The CVAs, especially the older ones, not so much. So please do get professional opinion. How hard was it to get the breech plug out? Are the breech plug threads corroded? That would worry me. Mine were not, and probably because I coat all of my breech plugs with anti-seize.

I have a Buckhorn Mag myself, definitely not the most weather resistant. I’ve had to scrub surface rust off mine several times. As far as shooting I keep putting off really dialing mine in but have acceptable accuracy with a couple pyrodex pellets and 250gr sabots. Being a CVA they do shoot pretty well with power belts as well as the CVA/Powerbelt relationship is definitely part of the marketing.