I ran a barrel nut on a Mausingfield Action in competition for 3yrs. I finished in 8th out of almost 400 shooters overall last year in the South Eastern Region PRS Club Series. This year I picked up a new Gunsmith Sponsor and am running shouldered barrels for the first time. Accuracy wise I don't really notice any difference.

The biggest difference is the Gunsmiths ability to time the curvature of the bore to the 12 o'clock position when head-spacing the barrel. What does this do for the shooter?

(1) you get a few Mils of elevation back in the turret when zeroing

(2) You end up almost perfectly at the mechanical zero on windage meaning you won't need 2-3 mils left or right when zeroing like you sometimes need when running a barrel nut that the bore is not timed.

I have had my barrels shoulder by the same smith and not need to adjust my scope more than a few tenths of a mil when zeroing a new barrel. This is probably the biggest benefit. Does it increase performance? Not really, but it gives you a little more flexibility if your scope has limited travel. Overall it looks better....