I'm not sure what your building your rifle for or how you plan to shoot it. I will say that all my single-shot rifles, most are schuetzen style, have the forend touching the receiver. Even my long-range Borchardt forend is touching, this rifle I do shoot holding the forend all my other rifles which are shot off the bench are shot resting the barrel on the front bag and never off the forend.
I guess I should also say that none of these rifles have any bedding compound on the forend, just wood to metal.
