A question for all the Low Poly uv mappers out there

Im doing a low poly gun (probably for use in Quake 3 game) and im stuck as to which way to do the uv layout. I am only talking about one part of the model (its the highlighted main body in the last picture below), but its the sme principle for the layout of the rest of the gun.



I started off laying out the UV's as shown below trying to keep the seams as few as possible. (see below)



But when I put a checker shader on the faces to see the layout, it looked ok in places and twisted in others. I then redid the layout so the checker shader wasnt distorted, but now I have got more seams on the gun to think about when Im doing the texture painting in Photoshop. (see below)



The question is.... which is the best way to do it ? More seams and less distortion, or less seams and more distortion ? It would be interesting to read your thoughts..