thanks fellows.

stangfish.....I have run into the issue with locking bolt on another rifle, and the washer did fix that. I will try this and see if It may help out.

JW.....The stock does not have pillars. The front hole is more oblong or oval shaped and the rear is a regular looking round hole. When everything is tighened down, the front action screw is all the way at the rear of the oval, so there may in fact need to be a little more room and larger holes may help. I was also thinking that the action is getting in a "bind" so to speak. I will also try your tips today and see if I can get this thing going.

It's funny how after building quite a few Savages from the ground up, I thought I had most everything figured out, and then this little "drop in" stock whooped my butt yesterday!