I have a couple year old Savage 10T in .223. It has only had 300 or so rounds through it. Since buying, I have swapped on bottom metal and removed the rail for a DNZ Game Reaper mount.

It first it shot poorly (~1.3 MOA), but after 100 rounds or so, it improved significantly. I haven't had time to work up a load for it, so I have been running factory 55gn Vmax ammo.

Last prairie dog hunt, I heated up the rifle (3 or 4 rpm with a suppressor on). I ran a round in and noticed the bolt closed hard. Immediately thought something was up, so opened the bolt and it didn't want to slide back. Ended up mortaring the rifle to get it open. The bullet was jammed in so far that it actually pulled out of the case; I had to use a cleaning rod and jag to knock it out. The ammo in use measured good, but even now a bullet is relatively tight and marked up when removing without firing.

I have not fired the rifle since the "jam" due to safety concerns. Is the barrel junk? Does Savage suck at headspacing? A barrel can't just shrink. I have dropped it off with my local Savage expert to check the headspacing, depending on what he finds I might cut my losses and use the money for another AR.

Headspace is the relationship between the bolt face and the cartridge shoulder. Short headspace will not jam bullets farther into the rifling. Your bullets are seated too long or your chamber lead is short.

How many rounds since chamber lead was scrubbed good? Carbon could be building up making it tighter.

Good point. I am pretty confident the seating depth is ok, OAL under 2.25".

I would say maybe 50 rounds through it since last cleaning. But I can't think of anything other than fouling that would cause the issue. I will clean it like I'm getting paid for it and check it again. I wonder if the factory ammo is burning dirty; I normally run 200+ rounds of H322 handloads in my AR suppressed before cleaning and never had an issue.

2.25 may be way too long for a 55. i would guess the hornady book say 2.2 or less

Another good thought, but I just checked and 9th edition puts it at 2.25" COL for a 55gn vmax. It appears the ammo is in spec, and it clears fine in my AR. Just the bolt gun having issues.

It sounds like you have a carbon ring in the neck of the chamber probably caused by the suppressor and a tight chamber. I would take CLP or something similar and let it soak in the chamber for a while and then take a brush and scrub it. You might have to d this a few times to get it clean.

I will plan on that. I am also going to check a whole box of the ammo I was running. I think it is possible that some were out of spec.

Pretty bad when I trust my handloads specs more than factory.