Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing can't tighten front action screw Model 70

I put my Winchester Model 70 push feed into a new Boyd Classic stock. You may remember me cause I had that embarrassing thread about my botched glass bedding job in the original plastic "walmart" stock. Anyway, the rifle shoots much better in the new stock. It was a 2 1/2 to 3" shooter with the old stock but now with the same loads it shoots just over an inch and sometimes better.

The strange thing is that if I tighten the front action screw much more than just barely snug it puts stress on the action to the point where the bolt is very hard to close and open at the end of the travel (the last 1/8 of the turn or so). I am just using a small allen head wrench so I am not putting much torque on it at all. As a result the screw loosens up pretty quickly when I shoot it and have to retighten it frequently. I have messed around with tightening order (front to back, back to front) and it doesn't seem to matter much. Once I cinch up that front action screw the action starts to bind.

I thought about just putting some loctite on it and see how that works but there must be a reason this is happening and a real fix for it. Thinking about it seems like there must be some fitment issues around the recoil lug. Perhaps the recess isn't deep enough? Too deep? I will probably have to bed it eventually. I might even do that again myself (I know ... slow learner).

So, Smiths of the fire what do ya think is going on with this finicky front action screw?