To follow up... a) I was a bit PO'd that the rifle was unloadable and I vented. b) I sat back and took inventory.
I got out a loupe to take a look at the 4 holes, but still assuming I was supposed to load at the barrel as the other 3 holes made much less sense (alignment and seam issues could prevent a pellet from passing, and that would really take away from the advantage of a fixed barrel somewhat). but I checked all of them. Sure enough, the barrel breach had a ding, like someone tried to stuff a BB in it and missed (I cant say that was it, that's just what it looked like). So I took out the dremel and honed that down. 10 minutes later I was shooting 1-holers at 10yards off-hand. Half an hour later I'd gotten used to the shot cycle and beside some grind in cocking (which I expect I'll fix) it was pretty awesome. Unlike other underlevers (and side-levers) that require the cocking handle to be open when you load, you can cock and load this in any order: load-and-cock, load-while-cocking-arm-is-open, cock-and-load. It feels so much better and less awkward than holding the cocking arm open!
So...I went from PO'd to convert in about 2 hours. I thought I'd love the flip-up, and I do. Quite frankly the accuracy is a surprise with all the bad I hear about Hatsan/Turkish guns. The lock for the cocking lever in simple, but clicks nicely into place with a spring action plunger that locks the cocking arm closed. You have to release it with a light tug from fore-finger and thumb. In all, a pretty clever design. I wish the flip-up was not plastic as I might feel it'd last longer, but everything else is much better than it should be for a $90 gun.
apologies for panic. I think I'm going to have this one grow on me...