Before I do anything else or call Boyd's, I thought I'd run this past the Savage experts here. This is my first post, although I've been reading the site for a while.

I ordered and received a Featherweight stock for a Model 11 in .243. It's a Christmas present for my 10-year old. The rifle is his, and he managed to kill his first deer with it this year. The stock arrived and looks great, so I went to fit it to the barrel and action tonight. Everything went great until I went to install the front action screw. It was a little short.

At first I thought all I needed was longer screws. Doing a little reading I see maybe that's not uncommon. But I don't entirely see how it will all work together, seeing as how the longer screw also means the magazine is that much further away, making the bolt and cartridges farther away.

So I put it together with just the rear action screw, and when I tried to get the bolt to feed shells, it won't. It'll move them, but won't feed them into the chamber.

I can see that the bottom metal isn't entirely flush - it sits deeper into the stock at the trigger end. Then I see milling in the stock that matches the width but not the length of the raised portion of the bottom metal. If the milling extended as long, it would sit flush and I assume the bolt would feed.

Am I missing something? Would longer screws fix this, or should the channel run longer?

Thanks!