A good guage of which barrels seem to be the most accurate is how many benchrest shooters are using them. According to the latest stats Douglas has fallen out of favor with the Benchrest crowd. I've heard from some that their quality control has been lacking lately. The new darling barrels are made by Bartlein. Of course we're talking about match shooters who are trying to eeek out the last few thousands of an inch from their groups. As far as a varmint gun goes, I'm not sure you could really tell that much difference. Having said that, most of my barrels have been Shilen except for my newest barrel on my benchrest gun in 6PPC which is a Bartlein. I think the quality of the gunsmith's work is much more important than which barrel you use. Just my $.02 worth.
