The force you guys are feeling is the force required to reset the firing pin. The savage resets the firing pin when you open the bolt. If you have already opened the bolt once and re-closed it then you won’t feel that resistance when you open it again because it’s already been reset. You will feel a hard spot just before the bolt opens because the pin rides just over the tip of the ramp.
Pull the bolt out and look at it near the handle. You will see a black button right at the end of a triangle cutout. The button is part of the firing pin. It is the part that the trigger releases when you fire. The triangle cutout forms the ramp that the firing pin rides up when you open the bolt. When you have the bolt out, the button sits at a notch at the very top of the ramp. The spring tension is pushing it to the bullet end of the bolt.
When you insert the bolt and close it. The trigger will catch the button and hold it back as the bolt is rotated. When the bolt is closed it will be in the 90 degree corner of the triangle. When you fire the weapon, the button on the firing pin will be at the bottom corner of the triangle (toward the bullet end). When you open the bolt, the button stays stationary in reference to rotation, which causes it to be pushed up the ramp.
So, basically, you are feeling the firing pin spring pressure, in addition to the friction of the moving parts being loaded with that pressure. Namely the locking lugs and the ramp surface.
The resistance will drop somewhat as the parts break in and wear smooth.
If the opening resistance drops drastically one day and your gun has problems with weak primer strikes, or doesn’t fire at all, then your firing pin spring has broke.
Just a note to people, from a fellow savage bolt action owner. Don’t prod and push that button out of it’s notch that it’s setting in when you have the bolt open. It will pop out of the notch and drop to the end of the triangle (fired position). Considering that the gun resets the pin when you open it, you get into a little pickle. The bolt won’t close because the nub won’t line up with the slot. And the spring pressure is to great to push it back into the holding position with your thumb power. You have to either take the firing pin spring out to reset it, or use a wood object to assist you in pushing the button of the firing pin back into the holding position so that you can close the bolt again.
