Makes sense. Thank you! I know both brands are reputable. I am going to go with PR then.Proof is corporate owned. I've "heard" that they are a bigger shop and hirer a lot of tool changers to man the CNC machines. Bartlein is probably a relatively small company compared to proof. I have never had an issue with the proof barrel and one of the most accurate barrels have ever had was a proof. I think their barrels are really good but I think in the mass sample size out there Bartlein reigns as the most consistently high performing barrels. And they have a pretty big following so there's a lot of competition to buy their barrels. I think in terms of supply and demand they can charge quite a bit more because people are willing to pay that for a Bartlein barrel.
If you are relatively new to the precision rifle I would just save your duckets and get a proof barrel. I doubt you're going to see a difference between the two. You have to be reloading and shooting at a pretty high level. I think there are a lot of new shooters that agonize over this brand versus that brand and then they feed their rifles factory ammo.