PRACTICAL ACCURACY
The trend in thinking is that fat barrels are more accurate than slender barrels. There's plenty that can be said about that. Fat barrels tend to be self-dampening; in other words, they handle the vibrations caused by firing and bullet travel through the bore quite well. Smaller diameter barrels have a higher-pitched tuning fork-like "bong," which can disburse bullets into a larger group. However, the heavy barrel is no guarantee of greater accuracy; the internal quality of the barrel and chamber are the important factors here.
The first of two other primary factors of heavy-barrel accuracy advantages are that they are slower to heat up and cool down. This shorter and shallower oscillation results in better shot-after-shot uniformity when several rounds are fired in sequence. The second factor is stability, as the heavier rifle will be less mobile during the shooting process. It will be less affected by the shooter's heartbeat and method of trigger control, for example.
Heavy-barreled varmint and target rifles are expected to shoot better than slender-barreled "sporting" rifles at the range. Consequently, the owners of such rifles can become upset, or at least disappointed, when somebody two benches down with an eight-pound rifle, including the 10-power scope, is outshooting them. This happens more frequently than one might expect.
The trick, if you will, to shooting extremely well with a light rifle, is no trick at all. Good bedding along with a good barrel is essential. And those same two factors are necessary for good accuracy out of the heavy-barreled rifle. So, no difference. However, there is a difference in the method. Manufacturers have discovered that improved consistency in accuracy comes with consistency in bedding. The easiest way to achieve this is through "free-floating" the barrel. That works quite well in most instances, but my personal experience has been that a bit of "up-pressure" out near the forend tip helps to dampen the vibes of a skinny barrel. It is difficult for a mass producer to achieve the proper amount of "v-block" up-pressure; they don't have the time to "hand-tune" every rifle. Some synthetic stocks have v-block "pads" molded right in near the forend tip (never on an attached tip, such as contrasting wood). Sometimes the pads are molded in correctly; other times not so well.
Years ago, Remington produced some sporting-weight Model 700 Rifles with a laminated stock. These were excellent, as long as you were fortunate enough to get one with a good barrel and action. By good, I mean having favorable characteristics for producing good accuracy. Fortunately, most did. When that quite stable laminated stock was corrected in the action area (just a little bedding compound in the right areas did the job; no need to use a lot), and a couple of proper pads were added to create a v-block with about 7 to 10 pounds of up-pressure near the forend tip, the rifles would shoot astounding groups. The same was mostly true with solid walnut stocks, even though they are somewhat less stable through climate changes. We used to do this with 700 ADLs and BDLs in 222 and 22-250 to make tack drivers out of them. We'd use the range during a quiet time, in the middle of a work day when nobody else was there, to test the bedding changes and various loads. Then, during busier times, we'd go back with the perfected rifles and loads and shoot a few tiny little groups with others watching. When we'd retrieve the targets from either 100 or 200 yards, with others looking over our shoulders, we'd "complain" about the load or a bad batch of bullets. Of course the sub-half-inch groups, many in quarter-inch territory at 100 yards, probably propelled some of the onlookers into depression.
Here's the situation... There aren't a lot of good, tunable, sporting rifles available anymore. Few things in life are more pleasing than a fine shooting rifle that can be easily carried. Fat rifles are okay. I have a lot of them. But, the most pleasure comes from having super-accurate skinny-barreled rifles. There's one route to having such a rifle. Instead of purchasing two or three off-the-shelf rifles in the hope that you'll find one that shoots okay, we find that customers are much happier with a Cooper rifle that performs like a champ right out of the box. So much so that several customers have been back to buy a second and third Cooper. As the owner of several Remington Custom Shop rifles, which retail mostly in the $3000 to $3500 range, I have become confident that the quality and performance of a Cooper in the $2000 to $2500 range is a better value. Go for some of the higher-grade Coopers, which get up into the $3000 and beyond price range, and you'll be astonished at the all-American-made beauty and quality. Be assured, however, that the lower-priced Cooper will shoot just as well as the pricy unit; it just won't be quite as pretty.
Get past the frustrations of today's factory quality by stepping up to the plate and thinking Cooper. Make your next rifle a family heirloom.
JDC