Lets look at the opposite. Have any of you had or heard of a rifle that, while made of top components, put together by a top smith, and shot with a variety of barrels, just never quite got to where it should have been? If that has happened, why not the opposite?
Whatever Y'all come up with here I know one thing for certain. It's almost impossible to recover from a hummer gone bad.
"Could 3lbs make that much of a difference in making up for our poor gunhandling habits? "
Nope.
My Hunter/Varmint Hunter has won a number of state and one National championships for me. It has had a number of barrels in both Hunter and Varmint Hunter Class. This set up just plain shoots.