Got a few questions about an 03A3 Smith Corona 1944 action I recently acquired.
A bit about the action it has been drilled and tapped for a scope, rebarreled with no markings on barrel and no front sight grove. It also has an aftermarket trigger marked Jaeger, which leads me to believe it is a Jaeger rework from the 50s or 60s. Bolt has an aftermarket Buehler two position safety and the cocking knob has been removed.

Fiddling with the action over the past month since I bought it I’ve had no issues cycling the bolt and had dryfired it once or twice but usually would hold the trigger down while lowering the bolt to keep it decocked.
Yesterday I was working on fitting it into a stock and dry fired it a few times I then had two new issues show up, the sear would sometimes not hold the firing pin rod back (rifle going to decocked as the bolt was being closed). As well as the bolt being incredibly hard to open after dryfiring.
Once I get the bolt open / cocked the action becomes easy to work again (until it is dryfired the next time).

Does anyone know what could be causing this?
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