I was up at my uncles house yesterday, helping him out with cleaning his garage out. I was rummaging through this box filled with old gun parts and there was a savage action in it. No, bolt or barrel, and missing the trigger. I asked if it would be ok if I could have it as payment for helping him and he gave the O.K. Today I took it downstairs and cleaned it up a bit. The only problem is that when I ran the bolt through it is is a bit sticky when the head passes through the middle of the action. Does this sound like the action is bent or crushed or should it be OK? There wasn't any markings on the action itself.

Savage 110 series? Center fire?
No bolt or barrel, you said? I assume you have a bolt as you said it binds up when you run it through the action. Put some layout dye on it and see where it rubs. Magic marker works. If it doesn't bind too much, you can polish it and use it. If it does, it is bent; so send it to me and I will scrap it out for you.

yes it is a 110 series and center fire. It is binding on the smaller right rail.

Hmmm. post a picture of where it is binding.

it's binding along the middle section where the arrow is.

Rail could be bent a bit; hard to tell without looking at it. Sometimes people remove barrels without a proper vise or action wrench and bend receivers. In the case of the Savage and Rem, you have to use an inside wrench. If you try to use a jury rigged method, you will warp the receiver. Might be the case here. I will give you $50 for it and take the risk.

I brought the action up to a family friend that works in Rice Lake. He determined that someone probably had tried to remove the barrel the wrong way. However, just the one side was just slightly twisted inward. Since the back mount was still in line and not twisted, he chucked it up into the CNC and milled out so that I would have clearance. The bolt doesn't bind anymore and only cost me the gas to get up there.