From a mechanical standpoint, a full round barrel will be stiffer in the same length, but you won't have the "cool factor" that a half round or full octagon barrel will have!  Also, the round barrel will have less potential for stresses in the barrel.

David Kaiser
Montezuma, IA

Forgot to mention that life's too short to shoot an ugly rifle!     (Chuck Blender, are you listening?!!)

David Kaiser
Montezuma, IA

I hear what your saying, and I like the look of full octagon barrels and nice wood, but I will be shooting this for bench rest accuracy so need all the help I can get, if the  potential is there for more stress because I spent more money for an octagon barrel and it may not shoot as good as a round barrel, well I don't think I'm gona do that. I'm just not into spending more money so I can end up with a pretty gun that may have less accuracy. 

Being that I see so many octagon barrel target rifles I though for sure that it must be because for some reason they were more accurate

As to the "ugly rifle" comment,  an old timer once told me that if your shooting in a match with the intent of trying to win or at least come in one of the top three positions don't worry about how pretty your gun is because when it's all done and over and the scores are printed out there's no place on the results sheet for comments such as Frank W. came in second with a pretty rifle. I guess it comes down to whether your a competitor or just a participant.
  S T