ORIGINAL: TRAY Any rule of thumb too follow besides just shooting? I'm thinking of purchasing a rifle that has a lighter barrel that's not free floated but has the action glass bedded recoil lug. I like the lighter rifles but don't want to sacrifice accuracy.
I'm afraid not! There is really NO way, other than shooting at the range, to determine if any given barrel is going to shoot better floated or with some kind of contact between the barrel and the stock. The required contact can range from none to full-length forend bedding, or anything in between, and you'll have to shoot your rifle with different degrees of contact between the barrel and the forend to find this out. It's exactly the same as with ammunition - you'll never know what load shoots best in any given gun until you actually shoot it in a specific gun.
Contrary to popular opinion, a light barrel CAN be as accurate as a heavy one, with the right forend treatment, the right ammo, and slower shooting! Light barrels just heat up faster, and this fact causes some of them to shoot bigger groups if you don't let them cool after three or four shots. (This is NOT true of ALL light barrels!!) You don't need a bull barrel to have an accurate rifle, but a heavy barrel is generally better on a target rifle, and NOT on a hunting rifle!! Actual accuracy of a barrel is determined by how precisely it is bored, rifled, chambered, crowned and fitted to the action, NOT upon how much metal is left on the outside.