IMO the bolt should feel the same silky smooth when loading a round for the most part as when running it empty. The only tension or resistance I feel when the running the bolt empty is a very slight resistance on dropping the bolt handle down. If you know what you're feeling, you'll notice the cocking of the firing pin/ cocking piece on the sear. There's just a bit of cocking. I timed mine and left just a bit of cocking for reliable ignition. Otherwise the bolt will slide forward on its own when you tilt the barrel down.
The only time I have malfunctions now after some low grade tuning of the tensioner and barrel chamfer is when I'm maneuvering the rifle in and around props with a mag in,, bolt back and inertia causes the bolt to slide forward and strip a round out of the mag. It will just get the tip of the round in the chamber as the rim still hasn't slid fully up the bolt face. I will pull the bolt handle back to chamber the next round properly once I mount the rifle in position, not realizing I have a half loaded round. I will then cause a double feed. This has happened to me 4 times now. Its always on a fast time stage and you're booking. Ive become switched on to it now, so I can notice it. But I bring it up to illustrate how easily the bolt will cycle and strip a round off the mag. And then also illustrate the first time the bolt meets resistance chambering. It's the forcing that round into a horizontal attitude. Sliding the rim fully up the bolt face, pushing the tensioner aside, and fitting the rim under the extractor. I will occasionally feel this action when running the bolt. I think this CRF method could be prone to creating a bind in the bolt/ round/ chamber if the chamber and tensioner aren't tuned correctly. And this bind is what people are feeling when their having minor, light, rough feeding.
Either that or their forcing the extractor over the rim, but that really is a different feel. That is extreme and I believe you'll ruin your extractor and tensioner in short order. The bolt would be almost fully forward and it would be a really hard last-minute ca-chunk as you're muscling the bolt handle down. I think you really have to be forcing it and doing something that you know deep down you shouldn't be forcing as you're doing it.
I recommended removing your tensioner and still loading rounds out of the mag to see if the resistance went away. If it did completely its the tensioner. Of you still feel some, perhaps not as bad, its likely the chamfer on the edge of the chamber. The round is still leveraging over too sharp an angle as its forcing the rim up the rest of the bolt face.
Watch this. See that there are two parts to the roumd coming out of the mag and snapping up on to the bolt face and loading. The first part as the round seems to magically pop out of the mag and snap up onto the BF. But you can see the round is still slightly nose up. Entering the chamber. Rim is still low on the BF not completely captured by the extractor. As the shooter continues to push the bolt forward the chamber forces the round straight horizontal. Forcing the rim up under the extractor, pushing the spring loaded tensioner aside. This second part is where the tuning and relationship between the chamber and tensioner reduce the hard feeding.
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