Think I'm going to take the Vudoo plunge - what barrel profile?

[KnowNothing256]

Jeez-o-pete! All this talk of heavy barrels - my V22 repeaters weigh 13-13.5lbs, with 21"-23" bbls in contours no heavier than Rem sendero, in Manners PRS1T stocks, with no frickin' weights attached. Balance isn't as important to me as building a rifle I can pick up and carry to the firing line without causing major pain in my worn-out shoulders with torn rotator cuffs...if I had to safely climb up onto the rooftop prop with a rifle weighing 20-22lbs, I'd have to have help getting up there - let alone managing to get back down quickly enough to shoot the rest of the stage on the side rests & shooting ports under the rooftop...lol

Also, no offense, but it sounds like you have a physical limitation that most shooters don't. Positional shooting is physical enough that each competitor needs to understand their strength and mobility limitations and not exceed them; it sounds like you have, but others' limitations are not as restrictive as yours so they're able to carry and move more weight, which has well-understood advantages.

Fwiw, my gun is about 15 lbs and it's fine, balances where I need it to (but just barely). I'm not particularly motivated to get up to 18-20 lbs, but I can absolutely understand why people would; it helps almost every aspect of getting and maintaining stability in the situations common to the current style of barricades. If offhand became popular again people would reevaluate; if people had to ruck their guns half a mile in a stage they'd adjust (and do, in field matches).

Pretty long way of saying: you do you, but you're doing what you're doing because you have to. Others get to take advantage of their lack of strength restrictions, don't be surprised or derisive when they do.

 

[Longshot231]

Jeez-o-pete! All this talk of heavy barrels - my V22 repeaters weigh 13-13.5lbs, with 21"-23" bbls in contours no heavier than Rem sendero, in Manners PRS1T stocks, with no frickin' weights attached. Balance isn't as important to me as building a rifle I can pick up and carry to the firing line without causing major pain in my worn-out shoulders with torn rotator cuffs...if I had to safely climb up onto the rooftop prop with a rifle weighing 20-22lbs, I'd have to have help getting up there - let alone managing to get back down quickly enough to shoot the rest of the stage on the side rests & shooting ports under the rooftop...lol

My Vudoo weighs about 16.5 pounds. A couple of other rifles that my Vudoo is styled after weigh 22 pounds. I can't complain about the weight when someone who wasn't more than 4'9" preferred to use the BAR as her personal weapon of choice. There are probably plenty of BAR men from the past that would snicker at us now on fretting about the weight of a rifle.