thank you gentlemen for all your quick replies. Lemoyne, the breech plug looked good to me and the ignition hole too (round, that is). I cleaned that thing thoroughly before this last round as well. I'm not exactly sure but guess that "flame cut" means the hole is distorted in shape, which it is not. Scope/gun have never been dropped or bumped.
As far as the lug screws...they are as tight as I can get them with regular screwdriver....I don't know how else to do it.....and remember that the last time I tightened them solved my accuracy problem at that time...and i haven't moved them sinse....although I did just check them again to make sure they were still tight.

One thing I noticed when taking the scope base off was that thos screws were extremely easy to "back-off" I thought they might have not been tight enough.

I know you guys may think this is a dumb question but, lock-tite....I've never used it.....can you still remove a screw if you need to after you use it??? Do you guys use lock-tite on all your guns when it comes to scope bases and such. Perhaps I need to buy a torque wrench...if so what poundage should I use for lug screws??? how much for scope screws???

I didn't realize you could over-tighten lug screws. how is that possible??? especially with a syn stock??