My 12 gauge pardner was really tight when I got it. Opening and closing the action over time broke it in.
There is one thing you might want to check, make sure the "spacer" between the wood forearm and the receiver is installed correctly. If it was installed a bit crooked it might be binding. If you loosen the two small phillips screws a half turn or so and reinstall the forend the spacer can slip to the position it should be in and not bind. Once the spacer has found it's "home" make a mental note of where the spacer sits against the wood forend, does the top of the forend line up with the top of the spacer, or is the spacer a bit lower/higher. Make a mental note of it. Now take off the forend and position the spacer where it was when the forearm was on the rifle and retighten the two small screws.
On my ultra slug 20 the spacer is a 1/8" up on one side and flush on the other. Making it flush on both sides causes it to bind and be really stiff. With the spacer tightened down where it likes to be the action is almost loose, not binding. My pardner 12 is flush on both sides and it's just tight, nothing can be done about it, unless I take the plastic spacer off and take some sand paper and sand a 1/32 or less wood off the back of the wood forend and then replace the spacer. You could do this, but unless it's really bad and doesn't get better withen a few dozen or few hundred opens and closing I wouldn't sand the wood. And if you do, like everyone says, go slow, measure often.
Oh, if you want the spacer to wear in quicker don't oil it, oil will delay or slow the wear in process because it's a lubercant. After it's worn in as far as you want then you can put a few drops of oil on it, but it's not required. After it's worn in they usually don't wear that much.
Later,
scruffy
