I am thinking about going with a pac-nor barrel for a Ruger .17 Ackley Hornet and would like to know what people think who have tried these barrels? I have a Shilen on my .22 CHeetah and was wondering if these shoot as good as the Shilens do!

I recently had Pac Nor build a barrel for me. They mounted it on a s/shot Savage action for me, in a 6.5x308AI. Strickly varmint/target rifle, the barrel is 1.230" no taper, 26"/SS, 1/8" twist, stock is Choate Varminter, trigger is SSS, scope is Elite 6x24, in Burris Signature rings. Weighs in around 19#. Very happy with overall quality/accuracy/customer service with Pac-Nor. Turnaround time is reasonably, I would build another Pac Nor barrel, and highly reccomend them.

Unless you specify otherwise, that will be the barrel my gunsmith orders. PacNor has in-house cryo treatment facilities, and years of benchrest competition that go into their knowledge of barrel making. Their barrels are guaranteed to be in the same tolerances of deviation from start to finish, as ANY other manufacturer. I have 3, and can't shoot as well as they can. Number 4 should be delivered by the gunsmith within the next few days,.....300RUM 30"

Dva01: 6 years ago I went forward with a 17 caliber custom Varminter project. At the time Lilja had ceased making 17 caliber barrels (it turned out to be a temporary stoppage). I do not think Pac-Nor was making 17 caliber barrels then but my Riflesmith was really high on the Shilen 17 caliber barrels. Douglas and Hart were not making 17 caliber barrels then either so I was concerned about the lack of choices! I went with his advice though and kept my concerns to myself. I am glad I did as the 17 MachIV Shilen barreled Varminter is splendidly accurate, easy to clean and holds point of impact even with 60 to 80 rounds of Moly-coated bullets down the barrel before cleaning!
I only have one Pac-Nor custom barreled Varminter these days but it is a 6mm Remington Ackley Improved and hard to compare accuracy wise between the two therefore. The best 5 shot group with the 6mm A.I. has been .380". This Rifle only gets shot at Varmints or sight in checks anymore. One of my load development groups was a .520"er but four of the five shots were virtually in the same hole! The four measured .151"! The sickness that swarmed overme with the 5th shot flier can still be recalled easily! The Pac-Nor cleans easily also but does not get the long strings of shots run through it before cleaning like my Shilen barreled rig!
I would say you have a tough choice in this regard only - they are both such high quality barrels that the choice is only made difficult by that factor!
My Shilen barrel is 26 1/2" long and of extra heavy contour. The Rifle weighs 12 pounds 11 ounces! I said this Rifle was accurate and checking my loading log the last 4 pre-Safari sight in checks gave these 5 shot groups at 100 yards - .264", .339", .322" and .262"! These groups were fired one each over the last 4 years!
As with all accuracy comparisons - so much of the accuracy of a Rifle also depends on so many things other than the barrel! Things like proper scope mounting, enough scope power, quality of ammunition (or handloading regimens), trigger quality, proper range techniques (including patience, wind flag usage, consistant Rifle placement on the bags, other proper bag and rest techniques, etc), proper crown of the barrel, proper bedding of the action, correct cleaning of the barrel and other factors to numerous to mention. Even the choice of primers can (and has for me) affected the accuracy of a Rifle.
Good luck with your 17!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Thanks guys! I think I'll give pac-nor a try!

I have owned between 12 and 15 Pac-Nor barrels and have never had a bad one. I have one in .17 caliber, chambered in 17 Mach IV and it shoots better than I can. They are great barrels and I believe you will be very happy with it. The folks there are great to work with also...George

How about .296" at 200 yards? My buddy's Fireball with a Pac-Nor barrel can do that, using production grade V-Maxes, at that! Pac-Nors are fine pipes!!