Pac Nor Barrels

[ghermitage]

All mfgs. seem to have a bore size or two that really work, but it's tough for any barrel mfg. to be 'the best' in all bore sizes.

Interesting ... who is good making the 7mm bore size?

 

[ghermitage]

Anyone tried PacNor's cut octagonal barrels?

 

[chino1969]

I have three Pac-Nor barrels for a switch barrel Savage that Pac-Nor chambered and threaded with the reamer I sent them. I examined all bores with a Hawkeye and the bores were excellent. The barrels all shoot well and clean up easily. I shoot at live varmints and like to shoot informal bench. They are right up there with my Hart barrels. I would buy another Pac-Nor without question. Their lead time is not bad, price is good and service is good.
Chino69

 

[tenring]

I had a Douglass barrel in 6.5-284 on my Savage 112 action. With TMBR stock and NF 12-42 NXS, used in 500 meter GH matches. . Barrel was chambered by Sharpshooter Supply. It shot very well for 1,200 rounds, then went downhill fast. Ordered a Pac Nor 3 groove pre-fit with same chamber dimensions for same action last year. It does not shoot as well as the old Douglass. Returned it to Pac Nor; Chris called me and said nothing wrong with it. I have Harts, Shilen, one Broughton and several Kriegers and no complaints. Just ordered a new Bartlien which smith will chamber in 30BR. No more Pac Nors.

 

[kaferhaus]

PacNor makes some great barrels as do a dozen or so other makers.

The problem with any barrel maker who is also "fitting" barrels is that they get into a "production environment" where they've got to get orders out the door. Sometimes that leads to work that was done with speed in mind instead of precision work.

I've made a fair amount of money by "fixing" barrels that were either headspaced a bit off, had crooked chambers, oversized chambers and or threads not cut to the center line of the bore axis.

And I've seen some crowns that weren't de-burred after they were cut.

Any of these things can affect the accuracy from a perfectly good barrel,internally).

I had a customer send one back to Shilen 3 times and they never did fix it before he brought it to me. The bore was fine, the chamber was cut crooked and the crown wasn't square.

That was and is VERY unusual for them or any of the other top barrel makers... but it did happen. I can only guess that when the customer sent it back, they just inspected the bore and failed to check anything else.

The sad thing is, most of the barrel makers will charge the same or nearly the same to custom fit a barrel as a top of the line gunsmith will.

Difference is a good smith may spend 2-3 hours getting it just right where they will have it finished in 30 minutes or less.

However, most of the time they do a decent job and if they didn't the customer is never aware of it.

The reason for that is simple. Most serious target shooters are having custom smiths do their work or they're doing themselves. 99% of the guys buying barrels can't shoot well enough to know the difference. And even a "poorly" done fitting of a otherwise excellent barrel is likely going to shoot better than a factory tube, so the customer has a rifle that shoots better than what he had.... so he got a good job.

Don't get me wrong, these guys turning out poor work is not the normal state of affairs. Most of the time they turn out good work.

 

[Rtheurer]

Boy has this thread stirred up some emotion!!!

So far what I have been reading most & I say again most of the good barrels comming from Pacnor have been the three groove.
has anyone else had a good or bad experience with the polygonal barrels or any insight on this land configuration?

Custom barrels are just the opposite of women, there are alot more good ones than bad ones. : ) He he

RussT

 

[StephenPerry]

Pac Nor
I have read most this Thread. There are alot of well thought out statements here. I feel that a company like Pac Nor needs to have a little more time to establish in the BR world. I would assume being in the NW that PAC Nor has a good name and end up on Hunter and Local BR guns. Being a West Coast shooter I will try one on my Sporter. Next year when I start chambering my own barrels I will only have myself to blame. I make some awesome 22 & 6 bullets so I would like to control more of my equipment by chambering. I have my own lathe and am collecting the needed gear to go with it. Don't be surprised to see Pac Nor on BR equipment lists.
Stephen Perry

 

[chino1969]

I had a Douglass barrel in 6.5-284 on my Savage 112 action. With TMBR stock and NF 12-42 NXS, used in 500 meter GH matches. . Barrel was chambered by Sharpshooter Supply. It shot very well for 1,200 rounds, then went downhill fast. Ordered a Pac Nor 3 groove pre-fit with same chamber dimensions for same action last year. It does not shoot as well as the old Douglass. Returned it to Pac Nor; Chris called me and said nothing wrong with it. I have Harts, Shilen, one Broughton and several Kriegers and no complaints. Just ordered a new Bartlien which smith will chamber in 30BR. No more Pac Nors.

I have a Douglas 1-10" in .243 A.I. chambered by Sharpshooter Supply that still shoots it's a-- off after over 1500+ hot Ackley rounds down the tube. Douglas is no slouch when it comes to accuracy and their barrels are not lapped!
Chino69