Help with barrel selection

[WhiteRubi]

Hey fellas, I'm getting ready to drop the hammer on an upper for 3 gun. I'm torn (and confused) about my barrel selection. I thought I had decided on an 18" Noveske intermediate gas system. Then read about the softer recoiling/smoother rifle length gas system. Turns out Wes @ MSTN is the man with the 18" rifle. Well, I converse with Wes and it ALSO turns out he has 17" rifle length gas system barrels. All that being said, a few questions:

Which will be more reliable for 3 gun, most likely with a Titan or MSTN/PRI QC Brake

Which will shoot smoother/less recoil?

Is it worth the money for a 3 gun set up, I mean a $500 barrel should be GREAT for long range bench shooting, but is it ovekill in 3 gun?

The rest of the build will be a Noveske Gen II lower, Magpul PRS stock, timney trigger, probably a Noveske or VLTOR MUIR upper. Haven't made a decision on bolt/BCG, charging handle, and thinking hard on the LOKI 15" tube.

So...thoughts?

[Dr Mitch]

Get a Titan comp, rifle-length gas. Do not get a bench rest barrel. A narrow profile barrel is best, and your trajectories will be best with a longer barrel, so go 20" on that. A $160 Del-Ton barrel will do just as well as you need it to. Very few shots will be from a rested position. Very few. Free-float the barrel, too. No point at all in using the POS mil-spec handguard setup. My dog crapped some mil-spec once. I threw it over the fence.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Dr Mitch

[carbon9]

I would ask Wes, he has the experience to back whatever he tells you.... Heck, you should just buy the complete upper or rifle from him.

The Titan comp is gonna be about an inch longer then the Quiet Comp and a little heavier, also more blast but it does work very well. The PRS stock is pretty heavy and will balance out just about any length barrel. Go with a 15" length handguard at the minimum. If you are going to shoot iron sights an 18" barrel is as short as I would go. If you are only gonna shoot optics, the 17" or 18" will be great. Just dive in, get it built and shoot it. This will give you a baseline of experience to know whether or not you really like one part over another. Odds are, if you listen to Wes you will build a gun you won't change very much if anything on.