Question: Tony, BPI (Black Powder Products, Inc.), which owns CVA, sells interchangeable Bergara barrels for the CVA Apex. What barrels besides the .50-caliber barrel do you use and why?

Smotherman: Bergara makes many different barrels for the Apex and the Thompson/Center Encore rifles. There are several reasons why a hunter may want to purchase an interchangeable barrel of a different caliber. One reason is the ability to easily change a muzzleloader from a muzzleloader rifle to a centerfire rifle. My first choice for a second barrel is a .243-caliber Bergara barrel. When my two young sons, 13-year-old Alex and 10-year-old Andrew, go with me to the range, I’ll have a rifle set-up with the .243-caliber barrel for them to shoot. I can train them to shoot a rifle with the .243, because it has little recoil, yet is still a deer-caliber rifle. The boys can get accustomed to learning to squeeze the trigger, rather than pulling the trigger, and they can get used to recoil, without becoming fearful of the kick. They can shoot that .243 all-day long without getting a shoulder bruise, and it helps them to shoot a rifle without flinching in anticipation of the recoil. The .243 has plenty of knock-down power to take-down a deer in any hunting situation. A friend of mine actually hunts mule deer with a .243. With the .243, my sons can practice with me on the range, and then when we go hunting, they have a rifle they’re comfortable shooting that they can shoot accurately and use to harvest deer.

In less than 30 seconds after I shoot my .50-caliber rifle, I can remove the .50-caliber barrel and replace it with the .243-caliber Bergara barrel. Then Daddy’s gun becomes their gun. Their scope is mounted to that .243 barrel, so they don’t have to wait a long time to begin shooting after I’ve finished shooting. Each Bergara barrel I have has a new scope mounted on it, and that scope stays on that barrel. So, when I change-out barrels, I also change-out sighting systems. One advantage of the CVA Apex is that the barrel and the Apex’s platform is pieced together so tightly that once I have a particular caliber sighted-in, even when I change barrels, I don’t have to re-sight-in the scope, because the scope on each barrel is dead-on when it’s put on the Apex. Also, with the .243, I can take my boys hunting with me. Whether we’re in a ground blind or a shooting house, if a big buck I want to take doesn’t show-up, but one of the boys wants to take a doe, I easily can change-out barrels. Then my boys can take does. The interchangeable barrel system makes hunting more fun for me and my family.