SPS Tac .308 Free Floating or not ?

SNIPER CENTRALS review of that weapon,Mel stated he did not feel that the contact interfeared
with the accuracy of the rifle,but did say it was a no-no for a precision rifle. contact on the bottom
of the barrel is usually not as critical as side to side contact. actually some mfgs. actually put pads
for the barrel to rest on.Such as my 700 VLS 22-250 and my VTR had 3 which I thought if removed
would increase it's accuracy. I used a dremel to remove them,accuracy became worse! Called
Remington,they informed me the pads were there to enhance accuracy.in fact accuracy became
so poor I traded the rifle. (it was actually 1/2 to 3/4 in rifle before the mod.) So my point is
shoot it first and if shoots well.........you can decide rather or not to modify it or get a different
stock.I personally do have HS PRECISION stocks on my 308 PSS,(CONVERTED TO VS) did not
like palm swell on PSS stock, as well as my 223 VS. My VLS has the laminated stock and is a 1 hole
gun, it is the most accurate rifle I own and it has a pad that the barrel sits on right above
the front swivel stud. BY THE WAY WELCOME !

Contact with the barrel, if it is consistent, may not affect the accuracy of the barrel but in general contact should be avoided if it possibly can be. The Garand and M14/M1A are capable of very good accuracy, and they have barrel contact. But in match configurations steps are taken to make the contact consistent and repeatable.
I don't see how it can be said that contact doesn't interfere with accuracy but is a detriment to precision unless he's saying that the SPS T isn't accurate enough to be thought of as a precision rifle. If that is the case, I've seen a few too many SPS Ts that are well within the realm of precision to believe that statement. The problem with the Overmold stock is that if you rest the foreend on a pack, the pressure/contact will be different than on a wall or tree limb, and different than on a pod. When you're shooting from a pod, the pressure will vary depending on the amount of cant, up or downhill slope, contour of the ground, etc.
Even with the poor OEM stock, the SPS T is still capable of very good accuracy in most cases and it may not be worth every shooter changing them out. I've seen some bone stock SPS Ts shoot well even with the Overmold. For myself, I wanted to eliminate the play in the stock and go with something that was more solid and consistent.
It may be that the pads are needed with that odd triangular barrel, I don't know. I would think that if pads helped the accuracy across the board Big Green would be slapping pads on the M24, the PSS, the 40, and all their other high-end rifles. However that is not the case. Pads where you describe are likely to prevent inconsistent stock pressure on the barrel, so I can understand that being used with heavy barrels and stocks that are more prone to flexing and those pads (because of their positioning and composition) provide repeatable conditions and eliminate incosistent pressure by isolating the barrel.
As for the palm swell, it is the one thing I miss with my SPS T. I really like the compactness of the LTR with the short barrel, but I would really like to find a PSS stock to put on it.

so pretty much exactly what i thought ? i guess for the money 5 hundred and change , i cant really beat the barrel / action combo , the stock is only a temp until i can pull some more loot together for a mcmillan a5 , or find a used one.. i would eventually like to try to marine tex bed this 700 as i have a friend that sent his to g.a.p and it came out unbelievable .. im kind of rough on my gear or i'd really not have any interest in the sps tac stock at all , but every wood stock i've ever owned , i've damaged or abused one way.. all my guitars (wood) have wear and damage marks , as long as i can keep the rubber from fraying or shaving up im ok with it i guess. .like i said ideally mcmillan is my goal but if im gonna pay to have it done , then im also gonna pay for a barrel to be done at the same time as the bedding.