Bigbulls, it is only my opinion, but I feel that the bolt should operate the same with the intermediate safety on or with it totally off (ready to fire).
It doesn't.
That said, I’ve used my friends Ruger 77 which has a similar 3 position safety and his bolt operates exactly the same with the intermediate safety set or not.
His Ruger safety does not operate like a model 70. The safety on a Ruger does nothing more than block trigger movement. The ruger safety is on the tang of the rifle and simply rotates inside the receiver to block trigger movement and does not touch the ****ing piece inside the bolt body while the model 70's safety is located on the bolt and actually pulls the ****ing piece to the rear and completely separates it from the trigger. Take the Ruger out of the stock sometime and you can see how its safety operates in relation to the trigger.
I know it is different than the typical push button safeties like what is on Brownings, Remingtons, etc... and you're not use to it but, for what it's worth, the safety on the model 70 really is one of the absolute safest safeties ever designed on a bolt action rifle and is one of the most copied safeties by custom builders.
BTW, I wouldn't use that gunsmith that looked at your rifle if you should ever need work. There are probably as many model 70's on this planet as any other sporting rifle and for an actual gunsmith not know how one operates is scary for his customers.