I noticed that when I try to manually cycle rounds through my Sig 716 using the charging handle the bolt does not want to open and I have to pull on the charging handle with a quite a bit of force.  
Then when extracted, the bullets are scratched to heck and the end is often dented.  Yesterday at the range I fired a round and manually ejected the next and it was also scratched up, so the auto-loading process is also causing bullets to become malformed.

The rifle has no problems actually firing and the ammo used was 149 grain ball.

Any ideas why the bolt would stick like that and why feeding would beat-up the bullet so badly?

Should I just send the rifle back to Sig?

You got pics?  Is the bullet getting dicked up or is it the casing?  A pic of the fired case and one that is dicked up would help.

Does it have the same problems with other ammo?

Have you checked the OAL of that ammo? Might be smart to measure from the shoulder to the mouth of the case too.

I had some bad SSA 6.8 ammo that was long enough to stick the bullets into the lands and not let the action close. I'd rip the bullet out of the case getting the jam clear.

This.

I bet it is ammo related. I had a similar problem with reloads that I loaded slightly too long.

I recommend trying some other ammo.

To provide an update to my thread:

I don’t have calipers to check the overall length of the ammo to make sure it’s in spec.
However, I bought more ammo and the problem persisted with Federal 175 gr Gold Medal Match and American Eagle 150 gr ammo.  I also successfully manually cycled all three ammo types through my SCAR, M1A, and Remington 700.  I did find an old discussion on Sig talk about a similar problem. The problem there was that the chamber was out of spec.  As a result of my testing and that thread, I have sent my 716 back to Sig for inspection/repair.

I will provide an update when I receive the rifle back from Sig.

I just got a new 716 and tried to fire two rounds - no bang, and it was hard to extract both rounds, and the bullets were scratched. Primers were dented pretty good...I was using  ball.

I measured both rounds and they are within specs. Guess I'll contact SIG.

SIG recommended I try other ammo before sending the rifle in. I bought some Remington and PMC and both worked just fine.. The CBC is a no go in it.

Which 716 do you have? My 3Gun was having this problem.

I think I have the problem fixed. Instead of taking off the gas rings, as many have done, I cleaned the bolt as best I could then coated it, the BCG, and the lugs especially, with the most viscous oil I have in the gun room - the orange oil that came with my Dan Wesson. Flawless performance after that.