On the '61, there's a short channel oh, about 1/2" long or so through which the pellet travels before it gets to the barrel itself. I unscrewed the barrel, loaded a clip, pointed the gun down, and worked the arm back and forth to index the magazine and chamber the pellets. As each pellet was pushed into the channel it would just fall out (because there was no barrel waiting for it). The pellets were coming out damaged, so there was no question that it was happening as the pellet moved from the mag into that channel.
I also pulled the bolt out and looking from the back I could see the misalignment between the mag and that channel.
I'm just hoping that the clown I talked just threw some words at me, and that the guy who actually worked on the rifle knew what he was doing. But I'm not optimistic.