Barrel weight really depends on how you intend to use it.
Personally I've gotten to the point where I feel heavy barrels are dead weight for most everything but a dedicated bench/competition gun or high volume varmint rifle (i.e. prairie dog rifle where you're shooting a lot of rounds in succession due to the plentiful number of targets in a PD town). In the last year or so I've made the move back to 20-23" sporter weight barrels on most of my rifles as it makes the rifle that much more versatile due to the lighter weight and shorter overall length. My rifles still easily shoot sub MOA at the range with most falling in the 0.5-0.6" range @ 100. I just have to remember to limit myself to 5-shot groups and give the barrel a little more time to cool down between groups. Can't recall every having to (or getting to) take 5+ shots at anything in the field so calling that a negative is a misnomer in my opinion.
Bookmarks