[ccloer]

IMO, CVA has produced a very competitive ML/Centerfire rifle system, that equals or beats TC in both accuracy, quality and price. Several months ago, and through about a month of Internet searching, I was able to acquire the .45-70, .270 and 300 Win Mag ss Bergara barrels, a black composite frame, and a couple of black composite forearms. The fit and finish is acceptable, for the price, and the Bergara barrels are very accurate, shooting in the same holes for five-shot groups, at 100 yards. I would like to purchase additional barrels and perhaps another frame. The only problem is there now seems to be no availability of ANY barrels except perhaps for a few muzzle loader and fewer .45-70 barrels left in stock at a few online locations. And try and find a frame!

I have sent several emails to BPI (Blackpowder Products Inc. - CVA's parent company) and CVA over the last couple of months. They have chosen not to respond. I have talked with several retailers during the same time frame who tell me they have not received any Apex products in a while, and before the shipments stopped altogether, they were sproadic.

That seriously alarms me. I have to wonder about the viability of CVA and especially their Apex product line, if they can't produce the product! Interestingly, when I registered my Apex .45-70 Govt (the original rifle I purchased), I got a stock email reply from BPI, thanking me for my muzzleloader purchase...bet some of you have gotten the same email! I wonder if they remember that they are now in the centerfire rifle business...then again maybe not!

Anyway, I just thought I would see if anyone else wants to vent a bit about a rifle that is apparently becoming a collector's item because of its rarity! ...CC...

 

[Xd357]

Glad I got one if it's going to be a CI. Lol

I love mine in 35 whelen.

 

[ccloer]

Yeah, I really like my .45-70...it's the only one I've hunted with so far...

I took a management buck a couple of weeks ago on an 85 yard quartering away shot from a elevated shooting house...put the round midline between the next-to-last and last rib on the left side and the bullet passed through the chest, low between the front legs...no damage to any meat but jellied the liver, parts of both lungs and the heart, and actually blew heart and lung tissue out of the exit wound onto the ground. That was with the new Hornady 325 gr LEVERevolution cartridge. The same day one of the other club members shot a small feral pig mid-body with his H&R 35 Whelen and blew the little sucker almost in half...wasn't much left to clean but the hams!

 

[ccloer]

UPDATE HOT OFF THE PRESSES...I just got information from a post on the Greybeard Outdoors forum that I also subscribe to. It follows in its entirety:

"Apex shooters - good news! CVA has announced that beginning in January 2011, Bergara Barrels for its popular APEX interchangeable barrel rifle system will be sold exclusively through its CVA website – www.CVA.com. This novel approach to the sale of after-market barrels for the APEX will enhance the appeal of the APEX to consumers and retailers alike, according to Dudley McGarity, CEO of Blackpowder Products, Inc., owner of both the CVA and Bergara Barrel brands.

"The APEX is a relatively new entrant to the switch barrel market,” explains McGarity. “Due to its short history, there are just not enough APEX frames in the hands of consumers to justify our dealers stocking of a full line of APEX center-fire and muzzleloading barrels, and this has led to owner’s being frustrated in their efforts to find additional barrels for their APEX rifles.” By selling the barrels direct to consumers rather than through CVA’s dealer base, McGarity says that CVA will be able to offer APEX owners both ready availability and significantly lower prices than before. “The intended result,” McGarity concluded, “is a more efficient and economical system for distributing APEX after-market barrels that will make the complete APEX rifles even easier for our dealers to sell versus its main competitor, the T/C Encore -- as they will be a much better long term value.”

An insert will be included in the box with each APEX rifle that gives the prices and ordering instructions for the APEX barrels. CVA’s direct purchase prices for the APEX barrels will be $219.95 for center-fire barrels and $195.95 for muzzleloading barrels."

Okay, so I went to the online store...I can verify that it now shows many barrels in stock, many at the prices quoted above, but unfortunately for me, the .243 still lists for what I paid for an entire rifle from another online source, and the 35 Whelen is still out of stock. I cannot find the Apex frames on the store site either. If you go to the BPI website you will still find the following:

"BPI utilizes channel and direct sales relationships with virtually all major sporting goods wholesalers, buying groups, specialty retail chains and mass merchants. This system ensures that consumers can easily find our products nation-wide. We also manage a sales force of over 60 representatives located throughout North America that ensure that our customers are adequately serviced."

So what can we deduce from this guys? Apparently the CEO is being forced to respond to their inability to produce enough frames, which I can certainly attest to...just try and find one anywhere, by curtailing the availability of barrels in the broader marketplace as well. The most likely outcome of this change is that it's going to leave their wholesalers, buying groups and specialty retail chains without a lot of incentive to carry the CVA Apex product at all, especially frames and forearms, and owners and prospective owners will be left with only a single source for after market barrels, frames and forearms, at whatever price BPI chooses to place on them.

That's certainly not my idea of Free Market Capitalism! Thompson Center is probably LOVING THIS! Methinks BPI may have just shot themselves in the foot (read wallet) if the post is accurate...and it certainly appears to be. ...CC...

NRA Endowment Member; MS Gunowners Assn Life Member; Shoot only what you can't miss