Shoot it and find out. Not all rifles will shoot better with free floated barrels. I sold a Rem 721 carbine in 30-06 to a long time friend. The rifle shot very well in its factory stock with the original pressure pad in place in very straight grain wood. The fellow is a tinkerer as well as a hand loader that had recently gotten the accuracy bug. First thing he did was to wrap a wooden dowel with sandpaper and carefully sand away the whole pressure pad. 1.5" groups opened up to 4" groups immediately.
The next move he made was to clean up the bedding, no change. So, he used some cleaner to get rid of any oil in the bedding and proceeded to glass bed the action, again, no change. Needless to say he was frustrated after reading so many articles on how to accurize a bolt action rifle.
In the end, he brought the rifle to me and showed me what he had done. His work was very good. It should have worked.
We ended up installing pillars and a recoil plate behind the lug. Again, it should have worked but it didn't.
Everything looked good, why didn't it work??? There was only one good reason we could figure out and that was "harmonics." The pressure pad left on the fore end by Remington worked as a harmonic stabilizer. After looking at another 721 with the same pad we attached weight to the end of the muzzle to deduce how much upward pressure was being applied. Came out to 6 pounds even.
The next step was to build up a pressure pad about 2 inches back from the fore end tip with a similar amount of pressure. This is easily done by hanging 6 pounds of weight from the muzzle, while the rifle is assembled and inserting shims to hold it in place. Then pour a block of bedding resin in the appropriate place and allow to cure. I used Titanium Putty.
48 hours later, we shot the rifle and it settled down to a consistent 1moa performer with loads it likes.
One other thing to consider, all sorts of military and commercial sporters are full stocked and many, if their bores are excellent will consistently shoot better than the people shooting them are capable of holding. OP, your rifle may or may not improve with free floating the barrel. That's when you have to do some due diligence. There is usually a very good reason why the manufacturers put your rifle together the way they did.
Guntech gives good advice, I use an introductory card which is about that thickness. Also some rifles will shoot best when the channel is opened all the way to the receiver and some like a bit of contact on the chamber area of the barrel.
