Stock is Touching Barrel on Brand New Savage...Problem?

[MZ5]

If you get a 10PC (mine was only $550 in 223) with the accustock, these kinds of things don't happen.

Wrong again, friend. BTDT, more than once. You have to inspect the specific rifle you're going to take home, otherwise you 'never know what you gon get!' (from Forest Gump's mom)

[Roger SS]

Yes, this is the point exactly. The last thing one wants is any kind of intermittent contact. The pressure point at the front of the fore end is a woefully inadequate solution. All one needs is for the wood to expand or contract or for a polymer stock to be stiffer or more limp due to ambient temperature, then any concept of uniform pressure or damping being applied to the barrel is out of the window. If you do own a rifle like that, you need to be very certain of your zero under the conditions you are going to hunt. Or simply free float it and add a rubber damper donut to the barrel. You will then have to find the right position for the damper.

The whole point of free floating the barrel is that the harmonic behavior would be dependent primarily on the barrel material, geometry and the load characteristics, with the load characteristics being the most easily manipulated.

Westcliffe never led me astray before...that's for sure.
Free floated it is.