Originally Posted by Nomercy448

I agree with your entire post Cal, but I snipped this piece out to add to that line of thinking...

One can argue that hunters don't have to depend on heavy barrels because they don't fire in quick succession like target shooters often do. However, I'll offer this up...

There are hunters-of-men that make a living behind a trigger, and literally live and die by connecting on their first shot. These men rely upon mobility, and therefore make every effort to minimize weight of their equipment, balancing functionality with efficiency. These men also have a massive resource base to design, build, test, and prove out the most effective weapon to accomplish their tasks.

If it's not blatantly apparent, I'm referring to our military's elite marksman forces.

Every sharpshooting unit in all branches build and issue customized heavy barreled rifles.

Collectively, the US military armorers have far more experience in producing efficient yet accurate 'hunting' rifles than any other person or group in the world. There IS a reason they use match grade heavy barrels.

Again, nobody is saying that lightweight barrels can't be incredibly accurate, but saying that they are equally accurate to a quality heavy barrel, it just isn't there...