Fore stock screw is the culprit, the rifle has been "sporterised" and although it looks pretty good as it is (typical deer gun), I prefer the original military "look". So i'll try to locate either an original or repro set of forward wood (everything except the shoulder stock) as well as the various other missing bits and pieces to bring her back to a reasonable approximation of her former glory.
The problem with the offending screw is that it's surrounded by wood, so heat/chemicals are probably a bad idea, gotta be able to still use the rifle while I hunt down the missing parts so I don't want to destroy the existing fore-stock. As for reusability of the screw once removed, it's just an enfield screw, shouldn't be too hard to replace if I end up trashing it.