Help diagnose an issue.

I shouldn't even be posting as I don't have photos, and didn't witness the issue, but your thoughts would be appreciated. Here's the deal:

My son helped a brand new first time AR shooter zero his brand new Palmetto rifle that he bought from a shop locally, (and I hear paid two prices for.) I wasn't there shooting with them so can't comment if the firearm was lubed. It appears from our conversation that the bolt is driving the round forward but bending it. But only on occasion. The round will chamber but will not fire. The round was easily extracted and then the gun will fire normally a number of times until the next stoppage. I was told the new shooter had 3 brand new Magpul 30 rounders he was using. (came with the price of the gun!) Naturally the kids didn't try and swap lowers, or buffers & springs to see if they could isolate any issues. I'm disappointed my kid didn't consider that.

To top it off, the Einsteins threw the bent rounds away, didn't bring them home or take any pics.

I'll have my son encourage the new shooter to return the gun to the shop where he bought it, but with no damaged rounds for show & tell I'm not sure they'll get anything accomplished. I'd like to help but other than making sure the mag catch is tight, and trying a different buffer and spring, what would you guys look at? If those easy steps didn't fix the problem I'll encourage him to shoot it again, save any bent rounds and follow up with the shop.

Thanks in advance.

Send it to PSA for warranty. Don't think the shop can do much other than help him diagnose the problem and then tell him to contact PSA for warranty.

Ah, that of course makes more sense. If it isn't a loose mag latch or a buffer/spring swap I'll relay that on.

Strip it apart, including the buffer and spring. Clean it thoroughly. Properly lube with ordinary gun lube or 10w30 synthetic motor oil. re-test.

Until this is done, it's pretty hard to say anything is really wrong.

What type of ammo, if wolf tell him to try american made brass cased ammo.

Could be the chamber has some polishing material in it? I had one like that, cleaned the hell out of it, then it was ok.

They did stop by Cabelas and pick up some AE ammo, and that ammo ran great in my sons BCM and Colt. I haven't seen the friends Palmetto but I did relay on that it could probably use a good clean and then re-oil. I have no idea how Palmetto ships a completed gun, and what it looked like when they started shooting. I'm sure neither of them probably even checked to assure the bore was clean.
Thanks for the thoughts. I'll compile a list and have my boy forward them on.

Having a bent round and actually having it fully chamber sounds almost impossible. Dented yes. But bent? Also seems like it would take a whole lot of force to actually bend a round and have it go into the chamber. A pic of a "bent" round would be really helpful.

I know. I didn't witness this first hand so probably shouldn't have posted, but I'd like to help the kid if possible. After my boy told me about the issue I got online and found some pics and asked him what the bent rounds looked like. I determined the bolt is not riding over the cartridge, as there were no indentations or scoring in the brass, but the bolt pushed them forward (at a bad angle?) I found this pic and the son agreed this is what they looked like: Attachment 65032

These are not the actual rounds, I was trying to get an understanding of what was going on. But he agreed this is how they appeared.
I'm told the rounds chambered but did not fire, when ejected, this is what they looked like.

Clean really well, inspect the action and BCG for problems, burs, etc.; lube correctly, test again, if the issue persists, return for warranty work. I could tell you what I do to correct issues I've run into in the past, but all would invalidate the warranty; the match barrel I put in my 308 needed some clean-up work with the barrel extension feed ramps and upper mating surface resulting in similar issues shown above, runs great now, but I wouldn't do anything that would mess up your warranty. The other time I had this problem was with an Olympic Arms Ultramatch SS barrel a long time ago...same thing to fix.

Edit: I've assembled several Palmetto guns from parts and haven't had a problem with any of them.

Didn't someone report some of the budget uppers not having M4 feed ramps in the barrel extension or none in the upper that lined up properly?

I'd take a good look at those feed ramps and upper/mate to the barrel.