One thing I note here is that not one single person has mentioned the shooter's Stature. It seems purely unreasonable to me that a person 5' 8" tall (ME) would desire the same feel to a gun as one of 6' 6".
My personal preference leans toward a gun having a barrel length of around twice the pull length. In my case, as I am well fitted with a 14" pull this means a barrel length of 28", which does happen to be my personal favorite. I have shot well with barrels from 26" to 30" but the 28" remains my favorite.
Another thing that has not been mentioned is weight distribution of the barrel itself. Many years ago when I was still on the fence a bit about shooting Damascus, I had an FE grade Lefever sent to Italy for a set of steel barrels. It was a 7˝lb gun & I wanted to lighten it a bit so specified 26" barrels. Whichever one of the Bernadelies that did the work matched the weight identical to the 30" set. Consequently, it has thicker walls down the entire length than the originals.
You're correct that these two things haven't been mentioned on this thread but, they have been many other times on other threads, by me and others. Absolutely spot on with both comments, Miller. Hope you're feeling stronger after the meds/treatments.
SRH
