Sorry to hear of your woeful experiences today, Sunbeam.

Very disappointing.

I used to hunt with my rifles. And I accepted that they might get scratched or marked, but I'd always take the utmost care with them or hopefully prevent this. And many of my guns, some of which I've owned for well over 30 years are still in beautiful condition.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a new one to be in perfect condition.

As far as dry firing goes, it's not something I would do. There is a little bit of truth with the dry firing into carpet statement, maybe, but it's not something I would do or expect a gunshop to do. Jim Tyler's works in recent times have shown us that on many guns the odd dry fire may not have the disastrous consequences some may think, as the piston will still rebound on the cushion of high pressure air due to transfer port choking, but piston landing will be harsher. I also seem to remember seeing a recent post stating that Gamo say that their guns can be safely dry fired for umpteen shots?


Hope all works out well for you.