Because there was some talk that not letting the forend cap contact the barrel was good; I took the cap off and opened up the opening for the barrel with my Dremel until iti no longer contacts the barrel no matter which way I push on the forend. The thought was that that procedure was the equivalent of "free floating" the barrel, so the pressure on the barrel (in this case none) was the same whether you used a bipod, sandbag, whatever. Short answer: Gun shoots great without forend cap touching barrel.