I say yes its worth depending on how you intend to use the rifle, I built mine back in the 90's when Lapua cases hit the market, I've never worked with the standard so I can't really compare the two, if you plan on being in a set situation and have the time to dail in, I'd say probably not needed, I built my rifle as a hands on rifle, meaning its going to be in my hands at all times when in the field, the way I like to hunt I'm just as likely to shoot something under 50 yards as I am over 500, dailing in is not a option and is not for me, if im lucky I'll have time to use a range finder, so the added velocity is handy to have, I've hunted all the western states doing at least one if not two out of state hunts since 1974 including over 20 season hunting the umcompadre plateau of colorado, long shots are there but so are short ones, in all those hunts I only brought home four unfilled tags, so my guns get used, i built my gun on a ruger tang safety 77 it wears a 25in barrel plus a break 26in overall, VLD bullets weren't really a thing when I started this project, my bullets of choice are still the same now as then, the Barnes X 225 and 185 gr slugs, both hit the same point of impact so I can use both on the same hunt, velocities are 3300 and 3600 fps, those velocities come in handy when one does not have much time to decide shoot or don't shoot, the rifle has worn a couple of scopes but the one I settled on is the Leopold 4x14 varix III, and boone and Crockett reticle, with sling and ammo the gun tips the scale under 8 1/4 pounds, hornady made my dies and only took 3 weeks and were less than 100 dollars back then. But so was the brass, my gun shoots unformed loads with no loss in accuracy and only one firing before I load up maximum hunting loads,
