I recently bought a VEPR in .308.  Once I got it home I performed the unusual ritual of actually reading the instructions.  Per instructions, I cleaned the preserving oil off, and (per my usual cleaning procedures as the manual didn't really say what to use) proceeded to put white lithium grease on the places where parts slide together.  I sprayed the recoil spring guide rod and spring with oil, reassembled, and proceeded to rack the bolt f few times for everything to work together a bit.

I took the rifle to the range the next day to zero it in.  The first 5 rounds went fine.  However, starting with the next magazine every shot the bolt carrier would sick in the rear position on every shot.  It would only take a small bump with the hand on the charging handle like with the M1 Garand to get the bolt to go forward and chamber the next round.

I took the dust cover off and worked the bolt a few times by hand and nothing seemed wrong but if I pulled the bolt carrier as far back as could it would stick.  I can’t see anything wrong but I did notice that if I hit down on the rear of the of the bolt carrier, it would stay stuck to the rear.  However if I ever so gently tapped on the bolt carrier up close to the gas tube, the bolt carrier would slide home with no problem.  This made me pull the gas tube to have a look.  I couldn’t see any wear where it might be sticking.  

My friend has an M1A and he said that Springfield is a big believer in putting grease on everything but the piston or in the gas tube.  So we proceeded to lube everything up, more than I’ve ever had to lube any other gun except maybe my Mac 11 (which I just spray the bolt with oil until it is dripping and then put it back in the gun and fire till it quits smoking).  He wanted me to put some grease on the recoil spring and guide rod but I told him that it was the one part that I had dripping (almost) with oil when I reassembled the gun.

This didn’t really seem to solve the problem but it seemed as if maybe it was a little less inclined to stick and it took less of a bump for the bolt carrier to slide home.  Since we had put grease on everything else the only thing left was the recoil spring so I tried that.  There was an immediate improvement but it would still stick some.  So I put a LOT more grease on the recoil spring and guide rod.  That seemed to solve it.  It doesn’t stick anymore and I ran about 100 rounds through it yesterday.

My concern is this (sorry for the long preamble), I have a Yugo AK 47 and I only use a little bit of lithium grease on the sliding parts (just as I did initially on the VEPR) and it works fine.  So even though the VEPR works when I utilize a lot of grease, is this indicative of some problem?

Kinda sounds like you just need to break the action in by shooting it. I'd imagine after a few hundred rounds everything will figure out what it needs to do to jive.

Yes it does sound like it will need a little breaking in. If you supply the ammo I'm sure you'd get all kinds of volunteers.

But seriously I did note that you said you fired five rounds and then started on a different mag. is it possible your 1 mag is binding?

After a few hundred more rounds it should be ok...

Could be that the receiver rails are a little tight on the slots in the sides on the carrier.