Ah, yes! I know exactly what it is. I had the same happen to mine. I didn't have the knowledge or skill or confidence to take it out and fix it myself, so I sent it down to John Clapham, the Merkel service rep in Australia, and he worked his magic on it and sent a note off to Merkel about it, for them to be aware of the problem in the future. They do come new with it. From memory, whilst the rest of the rifle is made very well, there was an issue with the assembly of the recoil reducer. For peace of mind, I would send it to John Clapham or Alex Beer. I don't know about the second problem you've encountered.