The heavy barrel may help a bit to stay steady, but if you plan to use this gun as a pack rifle for hunting, you more than likely wont be very steady when you go to pull up on a deer due to fatigue from packing the bugger around. But yes, a heavy gun is generally easier to keep steady than a really light gun. But above all else, practice will help you more than anything. One thing that has helped me is to shoot a .22 that feels similar to my hunting rifle.