Subcoms rule, BIGGER IS NO LONGER BETTER? really now!!

[George Hill]

Doesn't a longer (rifled) barrel help to stabilise the spin of the bullet better so you have less fall-off downrange and so accuracy is enhanced?? One other way without going to a longer barrel is to provide more twists to the rifling as this can help stabilise the bullet as well.

Not necessarily. Take for example a Thompson Center Contender and a Thompson Center Carbine both in the same caliber and both scoped with the same optics. Essentially the same guns. The only difference is the length of the tube and a shoulder stock. I think the rifling is even with the same rate of twist.
The stock adds stability that makes it easier to shoot well. The longer barrel gives better balistic energy than the shorter little brother, true. However if you bench that not so little pistol and do your job right, you will find that you can shoot the same sized shot groups... even at the same ranges.
As long as the bullet is stabilized, your fine. The little factors that go into accuracy such as barrel harmonics and such can actually favor the shorter barrel if your talking about the same barrel profile and bedding and such.
Then again, there is still a good deal of voodoo when it comes to accuracy. Such as one big named rifle I once owned that should have been printing sub moa but would do no better than 3 inches at 100M. The factory had no idea what was wrong and after a month of head scratching just sent me back a totally new rifle.

 

[Al Thompson]

Jerry, I know what you mean. Col. Cooper once noted that a very high number of confrontatiions occur at conversational distances. If you think about it, the BG has to be close enough to say "Gimme your money"....

As for accuracy, while I'm not in the "six inches at six feet" crowd, I think we as a whole (all shooters) tend to agonize about inconsequential increments. Of the hundreds of IDPA/IPSC matches I've beeen to, maybe 10 folks could shoot up to their hardware when under pressure.