I wanted a '34 in .22, and Glenn Seiter promised to pick out a pretty one for me.
And he did. Unfortunately, though, he never test fired it. It REALLY didn't want to cock, and something was jamming it pretty badly. I pulled it apart and found a high spot on the end of the piston (about 3/32" in diameter) that was gouging the spring tube. I tried working it down with a stone and put it back together. Cocking was still tough but I forced it. It rapidly got better after that, and 100+ shots later it seems fine.
Oh, and it needed its breech seal shimmed. Gained about 60fps. That's 4 for 4.
I suspect the gun might never have been shot because of that factory defect, which would mean that I got a '0 mileage' rifle for $130 shipped. So I'm OK with that. But in my mind this sort of puts to rest the whole 'checked out by our gunsmith' myth.
