I recently got one from Cabela's, a .22 pretty good deal with a mount and scope. It had some of the same problems your did, stock rubbed, caught that quick and used some sand paper in the stock to get it off the barrel block, didn't take much, just a few passes. Overly tightened barrel cocking was very gritty, in fact a couple of times it locked up half way through the cocking stroke, took it apart and the seal had a cut in it, flap hanging off the side. fairly sure mine was a return too, because the piston was in perfect shape,not a scratch, but the the tube had a lot of scratches from being cocked, sanded those out with 1500 sand paper, bought a seal from Vortek, greased the spring with some Vortek spring grease I had, a tiny bit of moly and polishing in all the usual places, and it's now a nice gun. interesting take you say about the barrel, I never pushed a pellet through it, I was worried it would get stuck, this barrel is choked more than any pellet gun I got. In the end it cocks smooth, no sound when cocking, no spring twang when shooting, dime groups at a range finder 25 yards most the time, but this gun is not forgiving at all, not like a HW95 is. The HW95 is a better gun, more forgiving to shoot and much easier to work on, you don't need a spring compressor to get into it, and my 95 .22 would murder my 34 in competition, may not be true for everyone's, but it is for mine. You done the right thing getting the HW95, now with all that said, I do love the 34 also. Here's a pic of it, with an AGH Apex muzzle weight, it earned it.