Pac-Nor barrels

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BoogieMan

New member
Looking for a barrel to put on a mauser. I plan to build this to be an accurate fun gun and explore/hone my skills or lack of. Probably going to be 7mm or 30 cal.
I found great deals on PacNor barrels. I would like to go with them to keep the budget down but if my end result is going to be no better than a factory rifle it senseless to use. Douglas and Krieger barrels tend to be about 3x the price.
 
BoogieMan said:
Looking for a barrel to put on a mauser. I plan to build this to be an accurate fun gun and explore/hone my skills or lack of. Probably going to be 7mm or 30 cal.
I found great deals on PacNor barrels. I would like to go with them to keep the budget down but if my end result is going to be no better than a factory rifle it senseless to use. Douglas and Krieger barrels tend to be about 3x the price.
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You're having a gunsmith do the work right? I would say bend the ear of the gunsmith unless you're doing it yourself. He may have a suggestion. I can't imagine a PACNOR being worse than a factory barrel by their reputation.
 
I used a Pac-Nor barrel on my .338-06 build because they were the only ones who would make me a #3 contour in stainless steel. My gunsmith wasn't opposed to Pac-Nor, but recommended Brux or Bartlien first. In the end however the barrel is one of the least expensive parts of a custom build and saving $20-50 isn't worth worrying about.

I'd love to tell you that my Pac-Nor barrel is a tack driver, but I haven't shot it enough to say for sure. My job and moving got in the way, so my new custom hasn't been played with in over a year. However, it was showing potential with untested loads hovering a little under 1.25” for 3 shots.
 
You're having a gunsmith do the work right? I would say bend the ear of the gunsmith unless you're doing it yourself. He may have a suggestion. I can't imagine a PACNOR being worse than a factory barrel by their reputation.
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Buying a blank and doing the work myself. I am not a gunsmith but im a schooled & experienced machinist. I dont have any experience with barrels other than factory. Im not familiar with pac-nor reputation. But they are button rifled rather than cut or hammered.
 
BoogieMan said:
Buying a blank and doing the work myself. I am not a gunsmith but im a schooled & experienced machinist. I dont have any experience with barrels other than factory. Im not familiar with pac-nor reputation. But they are button rifled rather than cut or hammered.
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Plenty of good button-rifled barrels like Shilen, Douglas, Criterion, and PacNor and many more.

If they're cheap enough for a blank I don't see how you could lose. Especially if this is your first time fitting/chambering a barrel a more inexpensive barrel won't hurt so bad if it turns out less than ideal.
 
I think it was an old stock rifle from before Savage took an interest in serious target shooting.

The base rifle was a 12 BVSS-S single shot varmint model on the regular receiver. The barrel was just kind of cooking grade. Sub MOA, but what isn't, these days? When they cut the size of the F class targets in half, it wasn't sub-MOA enough. So a couple of us here put on Pac Nor barrels, chosen for decent quality and reasonable delivery time, and business picked right up.
I haven't done any rifle shooting in the past 5 years but the other guy shot out his Pac Nor and had Larry Racine put on a Krieger screwed in tight without the nutty nut.

We are told that purpose built Savage F class rifles are competitive as sold.
 
I have about gotten to the point that I believe barrels are a crap shoot. I recently did some builds using $60 blanks that will shoot with my $475 Lilja barrels. Who knows?
 
My local gunsmith only uses Bartlein blanks so that it what I went with and it shoots extremely well, however I'm sure any aftermarket barrel is gonna be better than any mass produced factory barrel.
 
I never have built with one, but Bartlein has a good reputation. I would wholeheartedly disagree that any aftermarket barrel is better than the factory barrel. There are some very good factory barrels and some very bad aftermarket barrels. Many of the factory barrels came from the aftermarket barrel makers. Not nearly as many now as used to though.
 
My Winchester M70 (early FN) will shoot into 5/8" With it's Pac Nor .257 Wby barrel. I toured their factory. They were very nice people to deal with.

gary
 
I have a PacNor .260 barrel on my M700 heavy silhouette rifle. It will shoot half inch groups from the bench. Off hand is, well, not so much. . . Anyway, based on one experience, I am a PacNor fan.

Drue
 
I had my 1943 turk mauser rebarreled with a Douglas Premium XX, airguaged 6.5-06 chambering,,,,,,mmmm, very nice barrel.....ITnD did mine out of Minerva Ohio...very reasonable for what I now have...it's a shooter for shore.
 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Pac-Nor as a barrel choice for a custom build.

Honestly all of the aftermarket barrels available are very very good. Bergara, Lothar Walther, Shilen, Douglas, Criterion, all make very good button rifled barrels. I don't think there is any shooter on the planet that can tell the difference between a quality button rifled barrel and a quality cut rifled barrel based on reading the target.

So for putting a barrel on a Mauser, Pac-Nor or Lothar Walther are probably your best bet for getting a tight shooting rifle without breaking the bank.

Jimro
 
According to Pac-Nor site their Super Match SS barrel is $310., Kreiger barrel is $325., Bartlein $325. Kreiger/Bartlein only offer one type barrel so not offering different grades of barrels.

If you take Douglas barrel and all the add on options your paying pretty close to a Kreiger barrel.

If someone buying Pac-Nor barrels at 1/3 cost of a Kreiger that price isn't from Pac-Nor as their lowest price barrel is $260.
 
Think two of my shooting buddies have used a Pac-Nor barrel in the last year or so. As I recall, they were satisfied with the barrels. However, Shilen barrels are probably more often used by gents I'm acquainted with at range I'm a member. Any barrel maker mentioned in previous posts has been used by someone I know at our range. Most have been very good barrels, but every once in a while one of them gets a barrel that shoots on the poor side. Doesn't happen often, but it does.

I've used a couple of Shilens with good success for accuracy. But then, I've used a fair number of Midway's inexpensive mauser threaded/short chambered A&B/Green Mountain barrels too that shot accurately for me after having it installed on some small ring or mauser action.
 
IIRC you can get a polygonal rifled barrel from Pac Nor, or 3 groove.

Ultimately I went with Brux for my custom rifle, but the Pac Nor always intrigued me.
 
The gunsmith who installed the new .243 barrel on my favorite Remington said that he only uses PacNor barrels, so that's what I got. It's a super match in factory contour and it shoots between 1/8" and 3/8" groups at 100 yards, depending on bullet/powder/load choice.

It shoots better now than when new, but that could be that it took a bit of load testing and seating depth to find out what it likes.
 
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