Hello All,

I am just about ready to pull the trigger on a CPA, and am finalizing cartridge selection.

I want low recoil and breech seatability.

CPA offers tapered throats in a limited range of cartridges. Do I need this for breech seating?

In any case, I am thinking of a 25-21, 25-20, 32-20, and the like.  CPA is touting the 32-20 CPA, but I remember reading that it is a frustrating cartridge.

I am open to insights to help guide the decision.

TIA

TIA
Are you intending to shoot your CPA mainly bench rest or offhand? And, just how do you define "low recoil?"
The reason I ask about recoil is one of the cartridges you are contemplating, 32-20, as chambered by CPA is a rifle cartridge intended for heavier .32 caliber bullets such as 180 - 210 grains and even heavier. That puts that cartridge in the league of 32-40. Not that the 32-40 would be considered heavy recoil though.
The 25-21 Stevens and 25-20 SS would have essentially the same recoil but 25-20 brass will be less costly.
Best of luck on your cartridge choice.

And the .32-40 is really not that much more recoil at the power levels most shooters use for schuetzen. But it is more versatile than smaller capacity cases. With the tighter twist rates available from CPA the .32-40 can handle a variety bullets that will be inherently more accurate than the others too.

.22 Hornet could certainly be breech seated.
Light bullet accuracy at 200 yards would be highly dependent on range conditions. Without knowing your accuracy expectations, it's hard to make a good cartridge recommendation. With a .22 Hornet shooting light cast bullets, it's going to be a challenge to get anything close to minute of angle at 200 yards if there is any wind at all. This is of course, my opinion.

The 22 Hornet can be extremely competitive at 200yds. Breech Seated as has been proven by Barry Darr. The real problem is not being able to see the bullet holes and the real challenge more so than the wind. His avg. velocity at over 2100 FPS puts the wind drift close to being comprobale to that of the 32-40. Barry has spent several years working specificaly with the 22 Hornet in conjunction with his Ohler 43 Ballistic system and has collected a mountain of data including chamber pressures. What he has been able to accomplish with the 22 Hornet has truly been remarkable and the information collected priceless. Below is just one example of the Ohler Ballistic system results that I hope he does not mind me sharing. If the OP is interested in chambering to the 22 Hornet I would highly recommend he try reaching out to him. Bottom picture shows his bench setup and the wires you see along side the barrel are going to the strain guauge also collecting pressure data and the rifle as you can see is CPA.


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JLouis

SmallBoreBuyer wrote on Oct 12^th, 2018 at 12:22pm:

The 22RF can also be breech seated and do very well at 200 yards. I've been BSing the 22RF for 28 years.

In reality, any cartridge can be BSed in any action. I BS a Rem 40X, in 300 Savage, long neck, too.

If you go below the 25/20, you will have a LOT of homework to do in getting your rifle to shoot, as you describe above.

A "fine" 22RF will out shoot the majority of 25 cal rifles, with the exception of a few notable, competitive shooters.

Frank

You are very welcome SBBuyer and something a bit more substantial for you to look at that I had hoped would be a bit more helpful to you while still in the process of trying make your decision and I wish you the best.

JLouis

Nice picture of Barry.

I wonder if the barbed wire is electrified