i believe iraqveteran8888 on youtube has a video about polishing some of the rough tooling marks out of the chamber so it unlocks better, that would be my guess at why its so hard to unlock
and as far as the case swelling it is normal for rifles to leave a little bulge in the case about in that spot, and it usually is pretty visible, im inclined to say that its fine in your rifle but its hard to tell in that picture
So I went to Google to search for info on a bolt issue on my 91/30. Guess what the 3rd link was? THIS THREAD So, here I am. For the record, I am not a COMPLETE Mosin noob, I just haven't run across this particular issue.
I have not fired this rifle. It is an all-matching M91/30. I have thoroughly cleaned the exterior and the interior. I have not disassembled the bolt.
I dry-fired the Mosin tonight, and I noticed that I was unable to raise the handle of the bolt more than ~1/2 inch. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the rear-end of the bolt had travelled forward about 1 inch total, and was stuck there. I had to manually pull the rear of the bolt to cause it to reset. I repeated this several more times, and every time had the same result.
Is this a simple case of needing to disassemble the bolt entirely and give it a thorough interior cleaning, or is this a sign of something wrong with the bolt?