Heavy barrel or regular for everyday shooting?

The 20" bull or heavy bbl. is a good compromise. At long range, you will never see your bullet impact with the quick jump of the muzzle on a light barrel-especially with the scope dialed up on high magnification. This is even true with the .22 cals., and moreso with larger bores. The longer, heavier barrels stay down with recoil a lot better, even shooting with a bipod attached. Again, it's a personal preference as to what works best for your particular situation.

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If you are primarily going to shoot it at the range and you are as impatient as I am, I think you will quickly see the value of a heavy barrel when the light, "easy to carry" barrel heats up and you have to wait for it to cool.

Shooting a hot barrel not only tends to increase barrel wear. but I find that the groups open up really quickly when the barrel gets hot.

My .308 is a heavy barrel. I use it at the range just about every weekend so not having it heat up quicky is important to me.

My .30-06 and .270 are hunting rifles with thin barrels to make them easier to carry in the field.
I can't shoot three rounds from either without having the third round stray at least 1/4 inch out of a group at 100 yards.
It's shoot two and wait for the barrel to cool.

I am way too impatient for that.
At least with my .308 heavy barrel, I can shoot two groups before I have to stop and let the barrel cool.
 
Standard sporter-weight barrels, like on the Rem 700 BDL or Win Mod. 70 are very accurate and balance well for offhand or other field shooting positions. I have no trouble getting sub-MOA accuracy out of all my sporters, but they're bedded well.

I once had a Rem Varmint in 6mm Rem, with heavy barrel and wood stock and got rid of it in only one season of hunting because it weighed too much. Some of the lighter-weight varmint rifles with fluted barrels might be the ticket for you, but I don't know of any in .30-06. You might have to go to .308 Win, which wouldn't hurt anything IMHO. I like the looks of some of the new Remington light varmint rifles, but wouldn't get one with a muzzle brake.
 
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