Chasseur, you are incorrect! Touching the barrels with you hand will have zero effect on the accuracy. The forestock is, unlike a bolt rifle, tied dirrectly to the barrels anyway, and barrel hormonics are not involved it the accuracy of double rifles,but they must be allowed to recoil freely, as if standing, and holding the rifle with both hands,shoulder, and cheek! because they are tied together fastly from chamber to muzzle, hormonics are not involved! What does effect the accuracy of a double is letting the fore end rest dirrectly on a sand bag, or pushed up against a tree for a rest.

The intent of the Beavertail forend on a double shotgun is to avoid the heat generated in the barrels for things like compition, or driven bird shoots, where a hundred rounds are sometimes fired before letting the barrels cool. The, absolute, only value of the BT on a double rifle would be for CULLING, but even then one can always wear a glove on the left hand.

I, personally, do not like the way they look, and I have re-shaped many BT foreends on shotguns to splinter form. Two or three times I've been turned off double rifles, and did not buy because they had ORIGENAL beaver tail fore ends, and I did not want to change anything on a collectors item, but could not suffer that block of wood under the barrels!