First Barrel Swap Question..

This is my first barrel swap on a savage (or any gun)

Presently I have a brand new 270 that I put 3 rounds through and removed the barrel and have a shilen 35 whelen barrel to install.

I have a go gauge ( no go is in the mail & a notched barrel nut)

With the a shilen barrel screwed in and headspaced on the go gauge the barrel has a little bit of movement.... is this normal ? if I screw the barrel all the way in then there is no movement

So is barrel movement normal with a barrel screwed into the action without barrel nut?

Or should I be concerned with the action and or barrel threads

with any thread there will be a bit of play. Otherwise stuff wouldn't be able to screw together ;) . When you screw the barrel in all the way, the threads will bottom out and effectively lock in place halting any movement. The trick is, how much play you have. When I did mine, there was a tiny bit, but it wasn't enough for me to be concerned about. But my action was from the late 50's, barrel nut from a late model Steven's 200 and a recoil lug from NSS. To help things along, if you haven't already, consider getting a new Recoil lug from Jim at NSS or sharp shooter supply as well as a trued up barrel nut. These have truly flat surfaces and will give you a better "lock up" with the threads on the barrel and barrel nut. But if the barrel just rattles around in the threads, then you might want to have it looked at. If you have a good set of calipers could could mic both the ID of the receiver and the OD of the barrel and check the thread pitch tolerances to see if everything is in line. But that can be more of a pain than what its worth.