As far as brand I have gotten good results with all of them. Barrels are very strange things. The variables are so many and how they come together can have so many different results that its impossible to pick a BEST brand. Any barrel maker out there CAN and DOES build some great stuff. No matter the maker some will be better than others on your particular action. It's really nothing you can predict OR plan for. Some barrels are HUMMERS and some are just OK.
As far as weight its very simple as most barrel makers have weight and contour calculators on their websites, figure out what weight you wanna carry around, how much the stock and action will weigh and then you can figure the barrel weight.
