I've had 2 savage rifles now just like this. One of them I leveled up in the drill press and was able to run the 1/4x28 tap in and straighten it out. It did leave some slop in the threads, but I haven't had any problems out of it yet. The other one I drilled and tapped to 5/16x24, but this was a bit of a PITA because the screw head on the rear screw had to be ground down and the pillars were a pain.