Interesting. I had the very same problem with one of the mounting holes on my 12FV, and can't remember which one, but I believe it may have been the front one. Figured it was an anomaly. The others were clean and easy to thread, but the one had a bunch of gunk in it. Even after cleaning, the screw still did not want to go in easily. I just used the screw like a tap, turning back and forth and working my way to the bottom, all the while, removing several times and re-cleaning the threads. After several in and outs, it cleaned up the threads and tightened nicely. Just another Savage quality control issue, that comes with turning them out too fast.