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Thanks for sharing and adding your experience to the mix. I know its fun thinking about building out a custom rifle but it's hard to justify when you get performance like that straight out of the box.

Hawkins makes some top notch stuff. I always love getting a glimpse behind the scenes where you get to watch the process. A few years back I walked through Seekins Precision and that was really cool too seeing how they build their rifles. Those VX6 scopes are great glass but you definitely don't have enough tube length for your long action rifles without adding a rail. Did you pick up a Leupold rail or what system did you end up going with?

@@huntleague It is a Lone Peak Razor TI, so I ordered the 20 MOA rain from Lone Peak - it uses a recoil pin in addition to to 4 #8 screws!

I think we will start seeing it become harder and harder to get 26" barrels as suppressors continue to grow in popularity. More and more hunters I know are shooting suppressed and whether you are hunting from a stand or spot and stalk the overall length is becoming a real factor. I think the demand for a 26" barrel especially on a rifle that does not have a folding chassis will all but disappear in the coming years. It is nice getting that extra speed though when you with that longer barrel length.

@huntleague it's to bad corporate greed turned it into this, less velocity and unburned powder results in less energy at the animal. This means it is unethical ideology, it's a shame people disrespect our majestic wildlife like that!!!!

I do think it matters but for the most part I find that higher is generally better so once it is set I don't mess around with it very much. EXO's solution for that is different on the K3 and K4 packs. The K3 packs have an aluminum stay adapter that you can flip that gives you an extra 2" I believe. Then the new K4 system offers interchangeable carbon stays which changes that load lifter angle. I know a few guys that will switch it depending on the load. For me I would just make sure the frame sits a couple inches above the shoulder so you can get a proper angle to just in front of the collar bone. I am 6'3" and the Kifaru, Exo, and Stone Glacier offer great pack frame sizes for taller hunters.

Thank you for sharing! Absolutely love hearing that from hunters and shooters. It is tough to find negative experiences with Seekins rifles as they are so smooth to operate and the absolute best when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Great choice and I am glad you have already experienced some success in the field with that rifle. I still love the 30.06.

They can be really tough to find at your local gun shops! Thankfully we had a Scheel's open up nearby and the Colorado Springs store typically has a few in stock. Good luck finding a particular color/caliber though. I still think this is one of the absolute best rifles around.

We bought the CVA right when the Gen 2 was rolling out last year. Ruger makes a fantastic rifle and I love the improvements they made with the Gen 2. My son spends a lot of time behind his Ruger Precision .22lr and really learned a lot about long range shooting with that rifle at distances out past 500 yards which I didn't even know was possible with a .22lr. Only issue I have encountered with the Gen2 is an occasional feed issue but that is something I have also experienced once or twice with the CVA.

I got a killer deal on a Badlands MK6 pack. I may be wrong on the name but I picked it up at FieldSupply.com for $130 which was a crazy deal. That is more of an internal frame pack that would be great for something like that. The AKEK pack is still cheaper than most on this test and they pack down pretty good and you could probably get away with their smaller I believe 3200 pack for those shorter trips.

It was the Arken Optics app not the Arken Ballistics app. I was messing around with the scope again the other day but didn't connect it to the app. I know the Arken Zulus is now under DNT Optics so I am not sure if you need to look in that direction now for app support. Kind of bummed Arken didn't continue with the electronics but I also can appreciate their focus on delivering top quality glass at an affordable price.

You are totally right on all fronts and glad all my fingers are still attached!

Thank you and appreciate the encouragement. I didn't realize how picky some rifles can be with different ammo until recently. I have to add multiple boxes of ammo to the budget now when buying a new rifle testing different grain weights and speeds. I have not started reloading yet but I am pretty sure the path I am on is leading me in that direction. We are having hunters inside the HuntLeague app vote right now on Gear of the Year items. There are a few different categories for low budget items and categories for bow hunters as well as rifle. It's always interesting to see what gear comes out on top. The CVA is definitely a contender for a 2024 Gear of the Year award. We shared our top picks last year but are in the process of naming selecting them now for this year.

I absolutely love the Tikka action and their factory trigger is one of the best. I recommend them quite a bit to folks to at least take a look at. Most of the $700-800 Tikka's don't come threaded or with a muzzle brake which is kind of a big deal as I originally bought the CVA as a youth hunting rifle. Tikka's are really light weight which I know a lot of people appreciate but again that adds to the felt recoil. That is why I went with the CVA over the Tikka in this instance and in this price range. No regrets with the CVA as it is a dream to shoot, its just a bit heavy.

Where are they made? If I can buy made in the USA I will.

​@@What_Fred_Said CVA is owned now by BPI which also owns Bergara. I know many if not all of the barrels are made in Spain for Bergara. I think the XT uses a Bergara barrle which is made in Spain. BPI is based out of Lawrenceville, Georgia and I know they are building rifles there now. With how many rifles Bergara and CVA now have in their lineup I am sure they are making some in Georgia but getting parts from all over. There are plenty of rifle companies that really offer made in America products. I made a video a few years ago walking people through Seekins Precision facility in Idaho. It is unreal how they machine and put their rifles together. Super impressive!

.5" all day is what I have experienced and keep hearing. Appreciate you sharing your experience and glad you stumbled across the channel. Don't get disappointed when I start talking about other rifles, bows, leagues inside the HuntLeague app and other stuff thats not related to CVA! This definitely won't be the last time we focus on it though as that rifle is bound for some big adventures and hunts in the days ahead.

@@huntleague definitely won't your production quality is top notch. It works out for me I'm in the market for a new 7mm prc. So looking forward to non cva content.

@@j-yakkI’m also thinking about a7mm prc after purchasing a cva lrh in 6.5 prc. My local gun shop has a Savage 110 high country in 7 prc man that thing looks and feels Sweet 😂

I was telling a buddy today that I wonder if I just won the lottery with this rifle. Was it just perfectly machined? Can they all be this good!?! I am so jealous of that employee discount! What a steal.

@huntleague I've sold probably over 70 cva cascade in all the cascade models and like 4 to my friends in all different calibers and I haven't had to send a single one back for work and my buddys rifles all shoot under 3/4 MOA, 2 are 300 prcs, a 7 mag and a 308 plus my creedmore I've gotten half moa and better on occasions, plus I got my strike eagle and the vortex precious rings with bubble level for free using spiff points, half off a magpul bi pod and a 100 muzzle break I paid 59 dollars for also on average Hornady ammo is like 30% less with the employee discount so I get 143 eldx for like 34 bucks a box

Would this be a good coyote rifle in .243?

@outdoorrn2980 yeah 243 or 22 250

@@outdoorrn2980 I like the .243 and 6.5CM options if you are wanting to use it for more than just varmint hunting (.243 is a great deer cartridge and is super versatile for youth and smaller hunters). If it is purely a coyote rifle, you can consider the 22-250, .204 ruger, or .223. Cost of ammunition makes the .223 appealing to me. My 6.5CM has been good at dropping them but it's 50/50 if the fur will be useable. The 22-250 and .223 are super accurate out to about 400 and may keep the fur intact a little better.

I think you can swap out scales. I wonder if they will offer a few more colors in the future. I got the M4 steel blade and used it on a pronghorn and two elk this fall. Finally at the end of the second elk the blade needed to be touched up. These are amazing knives!

Those Burris scopes are money! What is crazy is I have never taken shots at wild game past 200 and neither of my boys have shot within 200. My 16 year old shot his deer at 212 and that’s his only big game animal. My youngest has taken a pig at 270, bear right at 400, and now an elk at 484 and that’s the angle compensated distance. It’s when you really start stretching it out that the FFP scopes really shine. It’s not even a magnification thing either as I still prefer 9-12x at targets in that 800-1000yards. Burris has a scope coming in January that I plan to pick up next year. Still spendy as I am sure it will be in the $500-700 range. They definitely don’t get the credit or attention they deserve for the quality of their scopes.

@@huntleague That is really interesting. I am in Ohio so never shoot past 300 yards in a field, or 75 yards or so in the woods. If I lived out west I could definitely see investing in FFP. At this point I have owned a decent amount of scopes and Burris hasn't let me down yet!

Thanks for sharing that comment. I may poll the HuntLeague user base in the app and see what people would consider a "budget" rifle. Sub $500 is probably a real threshold. When I bought this rifle it seemed like the going rate was in the 600's. I was actually surprised before I started filming the video when I pulled the current MSRP of $875. At that price point it starts to leave that budget category and gets caught up in the mud with every other manufacturers rifle that tries to hoover just south of the $1000 mark. I am okay with that though as I agree with what you said that the Cascade is a "nice rifle". Its super nice with premium features and performance and a definite step up from what you get with a budget rifle.

That has been sad to see but so has everything else! To be honest at the current MSRP price you are within reach of getting a Bergara. The Bergara rifles are a little more polished but I do really like the 70 degree throw angle on the CVA. I think expectations make a huge difference when purchasing a rifle. My expectations were super high when I bought the Christensen MPR but getting 1-1.5" groups and having to really wait a while for the carbon barrel to cool because once it gets hot the bullets start walking and groups start spreading. Still a fine rifle but can't help but feel disappointed. I was thinking when I bought the CVA it would be a solid gun for my son. I picked it up last year before there was really any hype or much information or customer reviews. Coming out of the gates with bullet holes touching blew me away. I have offered to trade my son some pretty fancy rifles for his CVA but it's been a no go because of just how well that rifle shoots! The cost I am the most upset about right now is related to quality rain gear. Last time I bought rain gear I bought a complete set for under $100. Its starting to finally fail so I started looking at top tier stuff like Sitka, Kuiu, First Lite, Stone Glacier, Forloh, etc just the jacket is running $350+. I need some real suggestions for solving this problem otherwise I am looking for a few folks to help me start a hunting rain gear company for backcountry hunters!!!

That is a steal of a deal on a Tikka! They make fantastic rifles and the action is 10X smoother than the CVA. No judgement whatsoever if you can pick one up at that price. Did the barrel come threaded? With a brake?

Agreed. I do like the texture and soft feel of it but you are getting a no frills stock with that rifle. I really love rifles with a modern chassis system but most of the aftermarket ones are more expensive than the rifle itself.

@huntleague Right about the chassis systems. I'm gonna show my age, but I love the look of a high grade wood stock.

I own a few Savage rifles and they are extremely accurate. I even have one of the $350 ones you are talking about in a 6.5CM that I originally bought for my son. It shoots tight groups but the action was so hard for him to move out of the box he had to hit it with his hand like a hammer to open it. The trigger pull was easily twice the weight of the CVA (the one we picked up didn't have the Accutrigger that you can adjust). We bought it in a 6.5CM for negligible recoil but the $350 model doesn't come with a threaded barrel or muzzle brake and it had significantly more recoil (light caliber but shooting out of a lightweight rifle with no brake still produced quite a bit of recoil). To make the $350 Savage shoot anything like the CVA it would have taken significant upgrades. Gunsmith cost for threading a barrel around here is about $150-200 and often times the Savage barrels are so thin you have to add a thread adapter that typically runs $30-50. Now add a cheap muzzle brake at $50-75 and a new trigger for $100-150. At that point you might be getting close to the rifles feeling similar in value and features, but you will have spent almost as much and I would take the CVA barrel profile, 70 degree bolt throw, trigger, and stock over that modified Savage rifle. But YES, you are 100% correct that you can buy a $350 Savage rifle that shoots sub MOA. That is not meant to be argumentative at all either. I genuinely appreciate the comment and feedback as it is important for people to hear, test, and see different opinions when they are thinking about purchasing a hunting rifle. I think the Savage ultralight rifle with the proof research barrel is one of the best values on the market today especially for Western hunters looking to shave weight for backcountry hunts. There is a lot to love about Savage rifles.

@@huntleague I have 2 savages in that 350$ area. For the trigger you can buy a kit for about $10. Or you can cut the spring in it down a half a turn. Both worked well for me

@@cjberan Do you have any idea what the trigger weight started at and where it ended up? The cheap one I own does not have the accutrigger so just want to make sure we are talking about the same one. I looked at trigger replacements but not springs to adjust the factory trigger.

The biggest problem with the cheap rifles are feeding issues. All mine have been accurate, but I have feeding issues with every one of my them such as the Savage Axis and Ruger Americans. I sold my Savage Axis in 6.5 Creedmoor but it was very accurate for me. I needed money at the time or I'd probably still have it. All my Ruger rifles have had bad feeding issues, even my Ruger Gunsite Scout. Ruger has been disappointing to say the least.

@@huntleague no I didn’t measure what it was. It’s a significant difference though I can say with no doubt. If you cut the spring you could make it to light even as mine is very light the lightest trigger pull I have ever used. The other is good as well and here is the kit to go that route th-cam.com/video/Gq_Jud5DTz0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1d7-YtrhOV-PFAry

They are both owned by BPI and the barrel is definitely Bergara which is why it is so accurate. The action on the CVA is a 70 degree bolt throw which I prefer compared to the Remington 700 action (90 degree) found on all of the Bergara rifles. The action is quite a bit smoother on the Bergara rifles over the CVA. I have spent a lot of time at the range recently with both and there are some similarities and shared components for sure but way too many differences to say they are the same thing.

I'll stick with my tikas and weatherby vanguards. I've had great luck w my weatherby weatherguard bronze. 308

@@REDNECKROOTS As a high school student Weatherby was the absolute gold standard in my mind. I didn't think it was even possible for there to be a finer rifle. A lot has changed over the last 25 years but if it ain't broke...

@huntleague agreed! I'm gona buy my first mark v this year. I love weatherby! Even there vanguards are great.

@@REDNECKROOTS DANG!!! Leaving the budget department in the rear view. Those Mark V's are fancy town. You will have to let me know your thoughts and if it meets your expectations. I used a Mark V on a pig hunt in Georgia when I was a junior in high school that someone let me borrow. Made a rookie mistake too with it where I was looking at a pig, got down on a knee and tried quietly cycling the action to load a round. I never took my eye off the pig and when I pulled the trigger it went CLICK. I didn't pull the bolt back far enough to load the round and that pig took off! Let's just say it wasn't the rifles fault!

Totally agree. That is a huge bummer for lefties!

I want to say two under but I couldn't validate. I have shot some 3.5" shells from it but don't have any at the house at the moment. I shot an absolute ton of 3" last February on a snow goose hunt. Used a magazine extension tube with no plug and let her rip. Still love this EAA Girsan and I am actually trying to buy a few more right now but have had a hard time getting my hands on them.

@ I love mine too . I was asking cause I was running dogs and can only put one 3 1/2 in the chamber and one in the magazine

The one I have carried the most is actually the Gerber mini Pocket Sharpener but I don't know if they still make it. I found some on Ebay but didn't see it on Gerber's website or Amazon. It is really similar to the Smith's 2 step sharpener or the WorkSharp Pivot but even more compact. I like that style in the field as they are so quick and easy to use. Only problem is they can get gunked up with the fat and sinew from your knife easier than a ceramic rod or stone. I use another similar one from Lansky called the QuadSharp that offers a few different blade angles which is good for boning or filet knives that you want a slightly steeper angle on. The guided field sharpener from Work Sharp is awesome but a little too big for my backcountry kill kit but they just released their folding model of that which is probably what I will carry next year in my pack. I have also considered buying the Argali belt sharpener but it is a little expensive and the surface is so short that I am not sure I will end up liking it better than one of the other options. This year I used the Hogue Extrak knife and got through two elk and a pronghorn without even having to touch up the blade. The second elk I started with the Gerber Exo-Mod knife as that is what my son had in his pack. It made the first few cuts fine but I was back to that familiar place right away with an inexpensive Gerber knife that needs constant attention. Thankfully he was able to get my kill kit from the truck a few hundred yards away and I was able to get the Hogue out and use it to finish the job. By the end of that elk, the Hogue was finally due for touching up the blade. Planning to send it back to the factory to have them resharpen so it's ready to go again for next season.

I was drawn into this video because of those scales too! Need the details on it also!

Lucas sent me that specific photo so I wonder if that was a prototype when they were developing this knife. I have the orange blade and black handle on mine and love that combo. I will reach out and see if I hear anything back.

Grateful to hear that it helped. Always appreciate it when people take the time to say thank you!

That is a really great question. I really wish now that I would have weighed everything before I did it so I could give you a precise answer. My best guess is in the 8-10oz range as the rail weighs 3, epoxy weight is between 4-5oz, plus another ounce or so in hardware. The CVA Cascade XT is already heavier than the regular Cascade model because of the barrel profile. We went with a heavier setup to help with recoil for my son as he is a skinny little featherweight still growing into his man body. We added the HUXWRX Ventum adding another pound up front so it's not a light weight rifle but my goodness does it shoot. He has been crushing targets past a 1000yds with this setup. This has been one of our absolute favorite rifles ever to shoot and the rail plays a significant role in that.

I’m out in the west coast of Canada and I like to keep my gear as light as possible because I go behind a lot a lot gates without vehicles. There’s a sheep hunt or two in my future as well. I’m looking to add M-Lok so I can add the MDT ORYX Bipod (8-9 oz) but if you add the swivel version you end up not having a sling stud up front. It does make any sense. Great thing you’re doing with your boy!

Thanks for sharing! Always like hearing real world experiences and I think comments like this are super helpful for individuals trying to figure out what they want to go with. The local Scheel's had a few sets of Talley rings but they only had the 1" tube size.

What kind of history do you have with Talley rings? I almost bought a set a few years back but I don't think I have ever owned a pair. I know they have been in the game for a long time.

I have had the opportunity now to watch the Hawkins and Seekins/Vortex Precision rings being made. I have never had more confidence in a set of rings than what you get with the precision rings out of Lewiston Idaho. With that said if shaving weight is the goal, Hawkins Precision are my new go to rings. Only hunting failure I have had related to rings was in 2018. Slipped in a skre field on top of a mountain and came down hard on my rifle. Rings were fine but the base rail came loose which I didn't know that at the time. Cost me a buck at 200yds and a few boxes of ammo as it took me way too long to figure out the problem. After that experience the direct mount rings are a lot more appealing as it just eliminates that extra fail point. Featherweights are amazing but I think I am sold on the Long Range Hybrids. A little heavier but the 25MOA cant plus the level at 4oz is near impossible to beat.

I love hearing Bergara took care of you like that and they actually tested the barrel. I did the barrel break-in process as prescribed and then shot a handful of rounds out of the new 7PRC to get it zeroed for a hunt. I was literally hitting the same hole with factory ammo which you can see at the end of the video. The one shot that is a little low left I think was me shifting my point of aim from the center of the red diamond to where the bullets were hitting. I have heard so many shooters complain about factory Hornady ammo for the 7PRC with velocity being all over the place. I know it's a limited sample size but my goodness am I loving that Wilderness Ridge right now. We shot a Seekins PH2, Tikka, and CVA this week. Struggled to group with the first box of ammo but then switched to those Norma bond strikes and everything tightened right up. Used the Burris Veracity PH scope and just loaded the factory specs for that cartridge into the Burris app and synced the phone with the scope. Immediately dialed to 342 and got a first round impact. Outside of the series costing a ton of money its been an absolute blast. Learning so much and really getting some amazing input from hunters working on the series with me and from people reaching out.

Glad to hear it! Having a blast making the series and I'm learning a lot along the way. Doing multiple rifles all at once has really expedited the learning process!