CVA Cascade Vs ?

I know of one so far, let's see if more show up.

Moderator: MudBug

CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby 450 Deer Hunter » Fri Dec 16, 2022 11:47 am

Hello, I’m new to the forum and planning to run a 45O Bushmaster for the next Ohio deer season. I was researching for a custom or semi-custom build when I came across the CVA Cascade and Cascade XT. They look interesting, but I’ve not been able to find much real world feedback, so I was wondering if anyone here has experience with either model. I’m definitely looking for sub-moa accuracy potential and I believe the XT comes with an moa guarantee which is what caught my eye.

My other thoughts were to build on a Remington or Savage action and add a quality barrel, which I’ve done successfully several times with other chamberings.

I’ve also considered converting my CZ 550 Varmint Kevlar that is currently chambered in 22-250.
450 Deer Hunter
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:23 am

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby 450 Deer Hunter » Sun Dec 18, 2022 4:56 pm

I stopped by a gun store this evening and they had a Cascade XT in stock, but I’m not sure which cartridge that it was chambered in. Being the last weekend before Christmas the counter was packed, so you had to draw number to get service. I’ll stop back by on Tuesday morning and hopefully they will be less busy. I would like to handle one to see how I like the stock. It looked pretty good from 6’ away.
450 Deer Hunter
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:23 am

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby Billinthedesert » Thu Dec 22, 2022 6:27 pm

Deer Hunter, I hear very good things about this rifle, not the least of which is the Bergara barrel.
Billinthedesert
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2018 12:55 pm

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby CADDIE5 » Mon Dec 26, 2022 10:41 am

Got my cva cascade xt 450 bushmaster rifle for Christmas. Fit and finish excellent. Set trigger for 2#. Love the texture finish on the fiberglass hillside camo stock. Bolt action is smooth. Black cerakote, weaver/picatinny scope base included, radial muzzle brake included, and thread cap if you want to remove muzzle brake. Rifle balances perfectly with the fluted 5.5 sporter 22" bbl. You don't have to remove rifle from stock to set trigger pull. From factory set @ 3#. Waiting on 34mm scope rings to complete rifle for Illinois 2023 deer season. Bought Redding die set to reload spent factory ammo. Did a lot of research since I am a f class competitive shooter and this rifle was worth the wait. Handled winchester xpr and ruger ranch before buying this rifle. Will test the rifle with 3 different brands of 245-250 gr ammo.
CADDIE5
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2022 10:25 am

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby RBDMTJager » Fri Feb 17, 2023 3:56 pm

Caddies,
I have posted my original evaluation of my 450BM CVA Cascade for your consideration I purchased about a year ago. It is a long post but I feel it is well worth reading.
Bottom line in MY opinion is for a 100% factory rifle I am 100% confident the CVA Cascade is the best factory rifle currently available in 450 Bushmaster. I also feel it is a wiser choice than a semi or full custom rifle because the 450 Bushmaster is by todays standards a close range deer cartridge which based on my personal ethical limits has an effective range under 300 yards. I personally do not see the need for a rifle costing 2-3x more when you wont be gaining much for the significant additional cost.
Lastly my CVA Cascade shoots extremely well with my reloads producing sub MOA accuracy with five different reloads to date.
I included a picture of one of my reloads to give an example what you can expect if you reload.


Felt I should add an update now that I have completed load development for my New CVA Cascade.
I am absolutely and completely 100% satisfied in every way with this rifle. All but one of my reloads produced SUB-MOA accuracy (and that one was a BARELY over MOA at 1.1) and in all this rifle and my reloads produced seven SUB-MAO 100 yard groups, two were SUB .5" MOA and all 3-shot 100 yard group were under .7" MOA. This rifle lived up to it's manufactures claims of a MOA rifle, admittedly I was shooting reloads but regardless this rifle produced IMO for a 100% factory mass manufactured bolt rifle excellent accuracy.

For right handed shooters looking for an excellent bolt action rifle in 450 Bushmaster I can not recommend it strongly enough.

Picked up my new CVA Cascade Friday from my LGS who ordered it only five days ago for me.
This cascade is the one that is featured in Flat Dark Earth Cerakote and the stock is the Veil Wideland camo pattern. I looked long far and wide for the cheaper blued finish and black synthetic stock, but but the few I found in stock were so close in price (+/- $100) to the model I bought I figured the weather resistant finish was worth the extra few bucks.

I wanted a rifle caliber that was legal to use on public land in IN, IL,OH, MI, and WI. I already have fully rifled 12ga slug rifles but sabot ammo went up from $10-$12 last time I bought it to $22-$25 currently. And I have shot 95% of all 12ga sabot ammo ever produced and I can tell you accuracy can and DOES vary greatly ammo type to ammo type and also within each makers sabot ammo from lot# to lot#. What one does is buy a few boxes of sabot ammo, confirm it has the accuracy standards you want then ASAP, same day if possible go buy all of that particular lot# as the LGS has or you can afford. Actually a lot like 22lr match ammo selection process. I distinctly recall how costly finding an optimal performing sabot ammo at 100 yards for my favorite two of my three slug guns then once that was accomplished confirming accuracy and performance to 200-250 yards was to financially painful for me to even consider remembering.

I had amassed enough money in Cabela's points and Discover card points to cover the cost of all the dies, bullets', brass, powder, as well as 90% of the rifle cost. I already had a VariX-II and several sets of 1" med Warne horizontal split rings available, so I was able to make all the needed purchases with only having to spend less than $100 out actual of pocket cash.

When I began looking for a rifle in 450BM I had to choose between a bolt gun or single shot. The worst experience I have ever had while hunting occurred some 23 years ago due to a single shot slug gun made me swear off all single shot rifles save for my muzzleloaders FOREVER. So awful was this experience it still pains me to this day when ever I recall it. So I decided despite the significant cost savings of a single shot I would opt instead for a bolt gun.

My options for bolt guns in my price range that were easy to find and currently in stock and available were:
Ruger American Rifle
Mossberg Patriot
Savage 110 Apex Hunter
Savage Engauge Hunter XP
CVA Cascade
All others were either out of my price range or just weren't available for purchase at this time.

I had an opportunity to handle and evaluate all of the above rifles at different LGS's but only the Ruger was both in 450 BM and available FS OTC the rest were models in calibers other than 450BM and If I wanted one of the others in 450BM, I would have to order it. My issue was I found the CVA Cascade just to be an overall better rifle than the others in every way important TO ME in terms of fit and finish and found the stocks of the other three lacked the rock like rigidity and flexed significantly more than the CVA's and to make the choice even easier this particular LGS could get me the CVA at a price within $100-$125 of the others and I wouldn't have to pay shipping or a FFL XFR fee, only tax. If I could have gotten a Savage in 450BM with a Accustock within my price range, without doubt I would have bought it because I have a Savage FP-10 in 308 and absolutely love the Accustock. I discounted the Mossberg patriot as after watching a mind numbing amount of reviews it was my opinion based on MANY both video and print reviews if you buy a Mossberg patriot you either get a great gun or a tomato stake and considering I would have to order one on line, dealing with a problem rifle would've been quite difficult to say the least.

The stocks on the RARR, Apex and Engauge flex an unacceptable amount similar to my factory synthetic stocked M700 that was a literal tack driver UNLESS you stressed the stock while using the sling to steady the rifle and your POI would shift noticeably, and using my rifle sling to steady my shooting is of major importance to my style of shooting form. Solving that issue cost me a fair sum of money buying an HS-Precision AM stock for the M700. I didn't want to have to go through the with the 450BM.
I wanted to buy a rifle, scope it and do my load development and do no aftermarket modifications to it to make it acceptable to me.

So I ordered a Cascade. Unfortunately my LGS couldn't locate a blued steel plane black synthetic stock (neither could I) in stock which would've got the cost down so close to the savage the difference in cost would've been insignificant.

First I would like to commend CVA on including a very good owners manual that give detailed easy to read instructions on how to clean and maintain the rifle, brake in the barrel, disassemble/re-assemble the bolt and if as like me you wish to remove the barreled action from the stock to inspect when new or other reasons, they include the inch-pounds to torque the action screws to once you place the barreled action back into the stock. I would also like to commend CVA for using a well made sturdy box to house and ship their rifle in. It gave very good padded protection and the rifle, bolt, and owners manual all came in their own separate plastic bags.

I did remove the barreled action and gave the entire surface of the barrel and receiver a very close going over. I found no imperfections or left over tooling marks anywhere. Found no areas of unneeded lubrication or foreign substances anywhere. The Cerakote finish is also very well done and was blemish free. I removed the knurled protective end cap of the threaded muzzle and found the threads well done and in perfect condition. I suspect the end cap is why the rifle has not a recessed crowned muzzle. There is a red collared indicator to let you know safety is off. The safety is easily accessible and has a positive feel, but its click when pushed to off is a little louder than I'd like. Also really wish when the gun was on safe it also locked the bolt in place like on my Savage and Tikka's.

The stock is very rigid had no perceivable flex to it and I found no issues or imperfections with it either on the outside or in the channel where the action attaches and the area beneath thr free floated barrel. The gap on either side of the barrel from free floating of same was IMO just the correct amount and the gap maintained evenness its entire length from the forearm tip to where it met the receiver. Using a dollar bill confirmed the barrel is completely free floated for it's entire length to where it screws into the receiver. Very much liked the over all feel of the stock and it fit me quite well, recoil pad seams like it should help to mitigate felt recoil, but recoil is a non-factor for me. The camo finish is quite well done has no imperfections and I found it to be much more appealing to my eye than I thought it would be. The checkering on the pistol grip and forearm is about right and lends itself well to gripping the firearm. The studs in the stock for attaching a sling and bipod are well anchored and seam very sturdy, didn't move when I applied moderate rotational force to them and I have no worries of them pulling out. I then replaced the barreled action back into the stock set the action screws to the inch-pounds per owners manual recommendations.

The near 100% polymer detachable magazine seams well made and go's in and out smoothly with little effort and no binding. The button for releasing the mag is recessed far enough into the stock that there is very little or risk of ever accidentally hitting it and causing the mag to drop out unexpectedly.

The trigger is adjustable for weight of pull and the owners manual claims it comes set at 3lbs from the factory. I dry fired it multiple times and I would agree it seamed very light indeed and decided to leave it as is. One of two criticisms of the trigger in it does have a perceivable amount of trigger creep all be it small before it fires the gun but not enough to be an issue also a larger negative IMO, you per the owners manual have to remove the barreled action from the stock to adjust the trigger, where as my Tikka's, Savages and even my 12ga A-Bolt you do not.

The scope bases that come with it are very functional and I chose to use them, can't really beat free. I did remove them, clean both the bases the screws and holes, applied thread locking gel to the screws when I re-installed the basses torqued them to 30 inch-pounds. I highly recommend doing this with all bases and screws as yes both the bases, screws and holes in the receiver showed they were indeed dirty and in need of a proper cleaning to insure the screws never came loose once locking gel was applied and screws torqued in place.

Now I decided to clean the barrel. Started by first saturating the bore with Sharp Shoot-R Accelerator then filled the barrel with Wipe-Out foaming bore cleaner and let sit for 1.75 hours. the few patches I pushed through showed both considerable copper and carbon fouling. Did a repeat with the Accelerator and Wipe-Out and let soak for 8 hours. Pushed six patches through and although the sixth one was pretty clean I did a third soaking lest sit two hours and the sixth patch came out over 95% clean so I called the barrel good. Finished by cleaning the receiver and chamber till patches were white. Piece of advise its always a much better idea to FIRST clean the chamber and receiver BEFORE you clean the barrel.

Now I mounted a scope on it. Used the only suitable one I had available. A Leupold VariX-II 4-12x40mm. Would have preferred a scope with a less powerful low end magnification like 2x but I used what I had. Used medium Warne horizontal split ring I already had on hand. Did first clean and de-grease all ring screws and holes.
Once scope was installed max eye relief was set at 12x and reticle plumb to the receiver tightened all ring screws to 20 inch-pounds.

I then set about creating 40 reloaded cartridges for it. I took every one loaded them into the magazine and cycled the action to load the eject the rounds. Did it with both a full magazine of three rounds and a single round. All rounds feed and ejected without issue's. I always test feed and eject all my rifle reloads. I can not yet speak to how well it ejects fired cases, that I will find out tomorrow at the range.

That concludes my evaluation of my new CVA Cascade rifle.

Over all my opinion for the CVA Cascade is I am very satisfied with my purchase. I will give it 4.5 of 5 stars as because of the slight trigger creep, loud click when you engage or disengage the safety, the bolt doesn't lock in place on safe, and you have to remove the barreled action to adjust the trigger. But the overall fit finish and thus far function was very good and even though IMO it was slightly over priced I still felt it was a bargain given current conditions and the popularity of the 450BM at (rounded up) $649.00 OTD.

Now I fervently hope tomorrow it shoots as good as it looks.
Will report back with what it does at the range tomorrow.
Attachments
20220915_113514RSDD551.jpg
20220915_113514RSDD551.jpg (35.41 KiB) Viewed 10210 times
RBDMTJager
 
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2022 2:17 pm

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby Hoot » Fri Feb 17, 2023 7:00 pm

Boy am I glad that I put my evening pot of decaf on before sitting down to read this. ;)

Seriously though, that's one of the most informative reviews that I've ever seen, both here and on other shooting forums that I frequent. I'm glad you are for the most pat delighted with your rig. For what we wind up paying these day, satisfaction should be that good always.

Do entertain us as you go through your different load workups in the future. I missed what bullet you were loading for that group you posted. Were they Hornady 250 FTX? That's kind of the gold standard for comparing results but certainly not the only one. I got my best results loading the 225 FTX but they're not necessarily the best bullet for hunting if you're looking for pass through, even when encuntering an occasional rib.

You seem pretty informed on the subject of reloading so I have a special request to help me evaluate my recent 450b nbuild on a Savage Model 12. If you have a Hornady Overall Length Gauge and the 450b threaded case for it, could you put a 250 FTX in it and measure your barrel's distance to lands using it? My barrel came with an unexpected short freebore that I have been slowly advancing and it helps to know what otheres are getting on their bolt actions, or AR platforms as far as that goes. The key is being able to compare apples to apples. I have plenty of the different FTX variants as well as the XTP Mag line. Even the humble 230 fmj both round and flat nosed. If you have more than just the 250 FTX to measure with, the more the merrier.

If not, we all wish you a good long life for your rig. I like the fact that you cleaned the holes and screws for your mount before using LocTite. That doesn't always occur to folks that they need to do that for optimum results.

Hoot
In Theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In Practice, there is.
User avatar
Hoot
 
Posts: 5083
Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:34 am
Location: Minnesota

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby Stratofisher » Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:12 pm

After reading the great reviews on the Cascade XT I want to get one. Have been all over the internet and locally in St Louis trying to find one for sale. If anyone knows of a reliable CVA dealer please let me know as right now this gun seems to be a unicorn.
Stratofisher
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:08 pm

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby Hoot » Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:39 am

Stratofisher wrote:After reading the great reviews on the Cascade XT I want to get one. Have been all over the internet and locally in St Louis trying to find one for sale. If anyone knows of a reliable CVA dealer please let me know as right now this gun seems to be a unicorn.


Not sure how you feel about buying online but guns.com has them in stock. Based upon your other post, just to let you know, the Cascade XT is not a "sub $500.00" gun.

Hoot
In Theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In Practice, there is.
User avatar
Hoot
 
Posts: 5083
Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:34 am
Location: Minnesota

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby Stratofisher » Mon Apr 10, 2023 8:36 pm

Finally found me an CVA XT at BPI outdoors and had it shipped to my local FFL. Now just need the midwest weather to cooperate for a range day to get it broke in and sighted in. Grabbed some some of the Hornady Black and a pack of the Bear Creek 240's. Figure I will be break in with the cheaper rounds and then see how they compare to the Bear Creek 240's. Really like the performance numbers on the box and the look of the Bear creek. They are a really long round compared to the Hornady 250's- should have much better ballistic performance. If I can get them to work they will be my hunting round to turn this into a good medium range rifle for Illinois. Figure it will add a 100yds of reliable range over my 20guage slugs. Should be good to 300yds with the rifle paired with my Leupold Freedom 3 CDS scope. Excited to hopefully get to the range later this week.
Stratofisher
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:08 pm

Re: CVA Cascade Vs ?

Postby Stratofisher » Sat Apr 22, 2023 8:21 pm

450 BM sight in.jpg
450 BM sight in.jpg (94.04 KiB) Viewed 9526 times
Finally made it to the range today and was very impressed with the Cascade XT. Had my Leupold Freedom 3-9 scope on a Talley base with Leupold rings. Started off shooting the Hornady 250's after having foresighted with my Leupold Zero Point. Was on paper with the first shot and proceeded to dial it in. Was much less recoil than I had been expecting due to the muzzlebrake. The Hornady rounds grouped very well from the start. Walked the aim point over and the drilled a hole in the paper- 9 rounds inside 1.5". Definitely lived up to the sub-moa claim. Did try the Bear Creek 240 round and it was a bit more recoil, but totally manageable. Very impressed with this gun. Trigger pull was very nice from the start.
Stratofisher
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:08 pm


Return to Bolt Action Rifles

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests