Denny,
With the long barrels the block is the way to go. I don't think you'll get much arguement on that. Unless you are the 'smith that has to turn the handles on the Bridgeport to make it or the man paying the bill for the lots of extra hours it takes to make one.
I have/had glued sleeves and split blocks both. But don't kid yourself into thinking the block does away with the vibrations. They are still there. Now you simply have a stiffer cantilever (shorter barrel as you pointed out) and the harmonics are a different pitch now. So you still have to deal with them.
You can tune a load up and down using a in/# torque wrench on the screws of a split block gun. I've seen and had rifles that shot best at 4in/# on each screw all the way to tightened them as hard as you can. Rifles vary in that department. All you are doing is changing the harmonics in the barrel to match your given load by changing the torque on these screws.
But don't use the torque on the block screws to compensate for a so-so load. There is no compensation for good load developement. So develope a good load first and foremost. THEN you fine tune it with the torque wrench.
Think of these blocks kind've like the BOSS system and the rimfire barrel tuners. They all really work on the same principle. They are just applied to different areas of the barreled action system.
The other added benefit is it gives you a place to mount a scope without touching your action or barrel. And the action is now 100% free floated behind the barrel block also. It turns your action into a place to lock the bolt down and hang the trigger from and that's all the action has to do. That's why a lot of 1000yd guns have Rem 700 actions on them. There is no stress on them at all because nothing is touching them so it doesn't take a huge custom action in this scenerio.
The disadvantage of a block is weight and bulk of the block normally doesn't make a comfortable carry gun. Normally a block gun is strictly shot off a bench. But I've seen some lighter weight blocked carry guns also.
Steve
[ 01-15-2003: Message edited by: Steve Shelp ]