How deep do you have to seat the Barnes VS the other? When the neck is short I like to see as little case space used up by a bullet as possible.
the Barnes reloading manual recommends .050" off the lands, a little more than most others. I can't seat that long with the Barnes 168's in my 308, too long for the magazine. I have to go about .030" less than the mag to get them to feed.
You can measure the mag length pretty easily. Then seat a bullet part way in a neck sized, unprimed empty case, chamber it and close the bolt. That should put the bullet against the lands. Then take a micrometer and seat it another .050" deeper and see whether that overall length is at least about .030" less than the length of your mag. If so you're set. If not, have to seat it a little deeper til it works in the mag.
That Barnes bullet is one of the few that doesn't shoot well in my 308. I wonder if it's because I have to seat it so far off the lands. ??