I shoot a good bit of long range and yes velocity matters. To me though I would rather find a high end of moderate as to prolong the match grade accurate life of the barrel. The PRS guys can easily go through one barrel per shooting season.

I had my 6xc built with a 22 inch barrel. I shoot suppressed and a more handy rifle for positional shooting was worth the small velocity loss to me.

Don't get too caught up in velocity is king world. Do a test to determine the velocity node of your load. YouTube Scott Satterly, he has a good video on that. For long range shooting that standard deviation is critical. If shot A is 2966fps and you hit, but shot B is fired in the same conditions it may miss high or low because of velocity fluctuations (standard deviation). To me, consistency is more important than overall speed.

How important is barrel life to you? Will you shoot 1000 rounds a year? 2000 rounds, 350 rounds? If you are a high volume shooter plan on replacing barrels. If swapping barrels doesn't appeal to you there are more friendly cartridges available which will do all you want.

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