I stripped down my Husqvarna 270 last night and cleaned out the almost 50 yrs of build up. It wasn't in bad shape, but has sat under a bed for probably 20 years. Before I took it down I ran a piece of paper between the barrel and the stock and I had to cram it in and it wouldn't slide down very far. After I cleaned things up the paper now moves down almost to the action but it is very tight.Is this still considered floated? What problems could this cause, if any? This is the original stock (I thought it was a replacement), as I confirmed by the butt plate markings. Not sure if I should consider a new stock or not. From the inside of the stock there appear to be some cracks in the wood, but they don't seem to go all the way through.

Thoughts are appreciated.

Spud

Floating isn't necessary. Some rifles shoot fine with some pressure on the barrel. Shoot it if it shoots poorly you can try a good float job to increase the accuracy but it's no guarantee.

Tom

From your description it sounds like the rifle was intended to be floating. I think the vast majority of "properly" bedded rifles will shoot better with the barrel floating. Sometimes with less than perfect bedding, a rifle will shoot better with some pressure to the barrel.