I've learned to be careful with the idea of free floating barrels. This may, or may NOT, help your individual rifle, especially if your rifle barrel has a light sporter profile.

I've got a Winchester Modle 70 Featherweight .243, one of the push feed specimens that was made just before they re-introduced the Classic with the Mauser claw extractor. It shot like crap out of the box, 2" - 3" groups. I adjusted the trigger, then free floated the barrel myself,m and it settled right down. It will now print 1" or better if I do my part.

On the other hand. I had a Ruger M77 MkII in .30-06. It wouldn't shoot consistently with any load I tried. One group would be 7/8", the next would be 3", with the very same handload and back-to-back. It dorve me nuts; I free floated the barrel and the groups went to a consistent 4-5" pattern. I then had my gunsmith bed the barrel channel, and it would do the one great group, one crappy group thing, barrel cool, barrel hot, you name it. I treid everything. I finally sold the gun to let someone else figure it out.

Each individual rifle is different. The physics behind the harmonics is sufficiently complex to be beyond my comprehension. Many rifles (Rugers in particular) shoot their best when there is a pressure point at the end of the barrel channel. This seems to apply more when the barrel is light and tapered. Heavier barrels tend to be stiffer and will often shoot better floated.

You may just need to experiment and see what works best on your rifle.