a 26" barrel with a .223 is a complete waste of metal! A 22" barrel would be about perfect for such a small case volume. I cut back a 700 varmint barrel a few years back Could probably gain that 74 fps back if I made a serious reloading effort!
Dan Lilja commented once that a #7 contour barrel 21" long was 2.75 times stiffer than the same in a 26' length. I did his test to see if he was right, but used the factory Remington barrel. Saw similar results, even though I went with a 20" length in a #5.5 contour. I had a bad chamber in the factory barrel, so I cut two inches off the big end for a new .223 N.M. chamber. I had several loose spots as well as some tight spots in the barrel, and the last three inches were very loose. That's how I ended up with a 20" barrel. Groups went from 4.25" to about .45" using the same exact load.
I kept the factory Remington stock even though I heavily reworked it internally. What I ended up with was a very nice rifle with a heavy barrel that I could easily shoot offhand due to a near perfect balance between the hands. The only things different that I would have done, were to rechamber it in .222, with an aftermarket barrel in the same length.
gary