The barrels are floated but a large percentage of new ones I've looked at in various shops have forends warped enough that barrels are often contacting wood near the forend tip.
That said, I have a Classic and a Classic Select purchased used that have straight forends with barrels centered in the channel. They are usually the rifles I grab first when heading out - the light weight and nice handling have spoiled me.
The forends are very thin causing them to be more prone to this. I have corrected this before and no longer let it bother me as long as still free floating.
An easy way to correct it is to physically push the end of forend over past center. Once there I put a couple cleaning patches between barrel and forend to hold it. Set rifle in cabinet for a couple months and it'll keep most of that shape once patches are removed. It'll spring back some which is why I go past center. If your rifle has an ebony tip go place your patches just below it so as not to stress that joint.
