Mine's a CZ American, which has a 22-inch barrel that's supposedly a "sporter" contour. However, it's the heaviest sporter barrel I've seen on a small-caliber rifle, measuring .75 at the muzzle, yet the total weight of the rifle with a 4-12x scope is still only a little over 8-1/2 pounds. The relatively heavy barrel reduces muzzle jump (which isn't much anyway) so much that it's easy to watch the bullets hit at any range--even on paper targets, when close enough to see the little holes through the scope.
I wouldn't want it much longer since some of my shooting is done from a vehicle, but on a rifle only shot from the bench extra inches wouldn't matter. Muzzle velocites with my handloads run 3700-3780, depending on the 20-grain bullet. I also like the single-set trigger, which when set breaks cleanly at 9 ounces, pretty nice for shooting small varmints.
Have thought of getting a Ruger No. 1 rebarreled to .17 Hornet, as another of my favorite small-varmint rifles is a 1B in .22 Hornet--also extremely accurate. I often single-load rounds when shooting burrowing rodents anyway, and have the ejector set so empties bump the tang safety gently, remaining in the "trough" in front of the safety where they can be plucked out and saved easily, rather than ending up on the ground. If Ruger offered a No. 1 in .17 Hornet I'd already have one, but the CZ works more than well enough.
