Can't offer much advice on the screws on wood T/d risers, but maybe this will help. I had sold off my all my bear risers but one magnesium. it was still around because it had stripped threads in the metal and that short tapered screw had nothing to bite into. It was a #4 oval head screw, as near as I could figure. Was amazed at how little thread asengagement Bear considered necessary! I bought a #35 wire size bit, and a 4-40 tap then drilled out the same holes clear through the riser. Then tapped the holes and used some 4-40x 1/2 black oval head screws to reassemble the latch on that end. Because the only screws I could find his slightly larger diameter heads, I chucked them in my drill press and filed the heads to fit perfectly. Then used a Dremel tool. To grind off the approx. 1/16" of screw tip that extended beyond the drilled holes. A quick spray of flat black paint and it was almost impossible to tell it from the other end. I'm darned sure that my nearly 1/2" of thread engagement can is loads better than about 3 threads of engagement that it was originally built with!