Did you buy the gun new? If not, it's possible that someone did a free float modification to it.

Yeah, I bought it new.

hmm, that's interesting. none of my modern sporting rifles have a gap like that, though my Savage Mk II does have a small one and it's a .22 also but i doubt that has any bearing on it.

i don't own one of these rifles but i did find the manual online and gave it a read-thru. the parts list for the Model 597 LSS lists a few different parts from the standard 597. those parts include a front and rear stock insert. if those parts applied to your rifle and the front one was misaligned, that could be the issue.

if it were me though i would take it back to the dealer and compare it to another Model 597. it could be common. or it could be that something is just not sitting right in the stock and your dealer could help to solve that problem.