A little background, this rifle is a Savage Axis in .308. It has a 26'' Light Varmint Contour barrel pulled from a new Savage 12FV. It resides in a Boyd's Pro Varmint Stock and has the factory trigger. I built this rifle for myself and it has about 180 rounds down the tube, and up till today the gun has worked flawlessly without issue. I do not reload and have shot only factory loaded 168gr FGMM.

Here is the issue, earlier today while shooting at the range maybe 35 or so rounds in, I chambered a round and it felt really tight when I locked the bolt. So decided to take a look thinking maybe the round had problem, but when I went to pull the bolt back it was stuck. Ended up having to beat back with my hand and this separated the case from the bullet which was now residing in the barrel throat. After using some Kroil and .17 cal cleaning rod I was able to knock it out.

Powder was all over the bolt recess/throat area and I wasn't sure if anything was damaged, so packed it up and went home.
At home, I took the air compressor and blew all the gunk out and took a look down the bore and didn't see any obstructions and the rifling looked good. Next, checked the headspace with the go and no-go gauge and they worked fine. Chambered an empty round and it extracted/ejected no problem. So me being the the gunsmiting genius I decided maybe this was some sort of one off issue and loaded up a round. Guess what!! Stuck again and had to beat it open with hammer and the bullet was stuck in the chamber with crap all over. Rinse, wash repeat...

This is what I have done so far..

1.) Removed extractor ball bearing and re-inserted
2.) Used a different bolt from another 7mm-08 Axis that I have (firing pins removed)
3.) Cleaned and scrubbed the barrel and checked for tightness during this process their was none with either patches or nylon brush
4.) Checked and rechecked the headspace and they work correctly each time

After all this the only difference is that if I load a round the bolt will still stick, but when I knock it open the amount of pressure that is required is slightly less and I can get the round out without it separating.

Thanks for any help in advance.