I bought my daughter a CVA Hunter in .243 when she was 11. She took two deer over two years, one shot each. The 2nd deer was a large 8 pt. (for around here). She hit it perfectly at 130 yards and he went 20 paces and nosedived. I bought another for my nephew. He hasn't killed anything with it (mostly due to lack of opportunity) but it's been very accurate for him and he's enjoyed shooting it.
I recently bought a 3rd for a young friend of mine who is just now getting into hunting. I think it's the perfect rifle for a new hunter. Simple, safe and as accurate as they will need.
I wasn't aware they made them in 6.5 Creed, but that would be a good round to have one in. I know they made them in 7mm-08, so the Creed splits the difference between that and the .243.
As small and short as they are, they really aren't "lightweight" due to the heavy barrel. I suppose that's a good thing since the folks shooting them (in the case of the three I've bought) are fairly small in stature and a lighter gun would kick pretty hard.
I wouldn't hesitate buying one in 6.5 Creed. Just don't ask it to be a 600 yard tack driver. Anything inside of 250 should be worried though. They are good little rifles. I'll always keep one in my gun safe in case I need a loaner for a hunt. You can pretty much hand a CVA Hunter to anyone and they can figure it out in no time.
Thanks for the response. I have been looking at a single shot a for a while now. I saw a CVA with a 24 inch barrel in 6.5 Creedmore and it looked just right.
I had one for a couple of years in 243, it was fairly accurate and reliable for what it was. I got about 1.5"-1.75" groups (good days were sometimes smaller, bad days were sometimes bigger) with pretty much every factory load I put through it. I never had an issue with it, kindof hard to mess up a break-action single shot. Balanced well and wasn't too heavy, and it was really short and handy. I traded it off for a Ruger 10/22 in a boat paddle stock, sometimes I wish I still had it.
Don't expect match grade accuracy from it, as it's not a precision bench gun or a Ruger #1. The barrel isn't floated and changing your rest can type and point can impact your POI a fair amount, but I would buy one for a beater to let my kids to use if I had the chance. I would've handicapped mine to like 300 yards just with the group sizes I got, but It was a neat little gun.
CVA Scout 6.5cm. 9 lbs as pictured. Added a 20 moa rail from EGW which I bedded onto the barrel, throw the rail that comes with the gun in the trash. Also the harmonic ball on the barrel, cheap and it helped.
Berger factory 156 gr EOL ammo shot the best out of this gun, closely followed by Hornady 147 eld-m.
Best thing I did to this gun was take it apart degrease the bolts/screws apply thread locker (vibra-tite) and torque it all into place. The removable forearm will require adjusting to get it firmly set , degrease and thread lock that as well. Outstanding gun for the money.
Has shot sub moa out to 800 yards.
One thing to note, the Hunter (base model) is significantly different from the Scout model that @kcormack showed above. If you stretch to the Scout, that's just alot better built rifle. I actually think they come with Bergara barrels on them...
Thank kcormack. That a similar to how I would like to set one up. Thanks to all for the replies sounds like they are a good rifle. I will have to look into the Scout model vs the Hunter. They seem to be all on backorder and nothing at my local Sportsmans's