Hello all. New forum member here with a Savage 10 PC. Just picked it up yesterday and have to say that I'm happy with its performance. I do have a bit of an odd-ball question though. I noticed yesterday when I got home from the range that the receiver bolt stop has been peened in a few spots. The metal has been moved and some of the parkerization chipped off. I then noticed that the bolt handle's bottom surface that ends up contacting the receiver when the bolt is closed had some elevated casting marks. So, it appears that whenever the bolt is closed and the handle pushed down with some force, the casting marks on the handle ended up impacting, thus peening the receiver bolt handle stop.

I've since polished that area on the bolt handle and re-blued and the peening has lessened but what I'm curious about is the receiver hardness. This is a steel receiver and I would have thought that it would have been harder than the bolt handle? Could I have gotten a receiver with poor heat treatment or is this sort of peening typical?

Edit to add photos. Hope this will help convey what I'm asking: