Saga of the BAG Day Gun Pt3

At last posting, my BAG day junker rifle was FTFing, FTEing, and despite a wiggly handguard (which I pointed out to him THREE times, along with descriptions of the necessary replacement part), the gunsmith at Gander Mtn said the only problem was my Wolf ammunition.

Having decided in the affirmative upon his incompetence after he suggested the remedy to be $1/rd Federal ammunition, I set about correcting the problem myself. A replacement gas valve was located and ordered.

After a sufficiently bad dad at work on Friday, I return home to find that my gas valve has arrived. I happily discard the packaging, do some minor stripping to the front of my rifle, and replace the old gas valve with the new. Reassembling the rifle, I determine that the handguard STILL wiggles. This does not bode well. I start investigating replacement handguards online.

Saturday my dad and I decide to take my rifle out to a public range not far from where we buy our wonderful and wonderfully illegal fireworks. (Actually, it's legal to buy them, not legal to set them off, which of course, we would never do. Nope, not us, not once, not never.) After an hour of driving, we return home, not having found the range.

Today my brother and I took the rifle out to our regular range. I load up the magazine, snap the bolt shut, and hold the rifle at waist level (one can never be too sure with repaired junker guns, and I'd rather take an exploding receiver in the kidney than in the eye - I KNOW how powerful these things are). My first shot bucks the gun up in my hands, I pull the trigger again...and...click. No dice. This is good actually. Seems whereas before it was short-stroking, now it's stroking far enough to re-cock the gun, but not far enough (or too fast) to eject. My brother hammers the bolt back and chambers another round. I pull the trigger.

*BOOM*

*Tinkle tinkle tinkle*

The sound of a steel case skittering off concrete has never sounded so good. I ran through the rest of the magazine while trying to determine if I was too much of a gentleman to go back and laugh at the Gander Mtn gunsmith. I think I am. Not sure yet though.