Understand that you thought you might have touched off the first round. Makes sense, and it does sound like you were being safe by not thumbing off the safety until you were on target. Thanks for being careful.

You talk about play in the fittings due to being seated in plastic...I am not sure what you mean.
The Axis rifles I have worked with have steel pillars installed in the action screw holes, so there really isn't a whole lot of compression of plastic when tightening the stock to the action.