Salmoneye, you are freakin' awesome. That is a totally understandable explanation, and I thank you for it. I just looked at my barrel, and I do see a slight indentation where the pin might be hitting/deforming due to dry fires. I know this gun has been dry fired more than a few times because the bolt rarely locks back once the magazine has been emptied. Need to count the rounds from now on and stop letting my friends shoot it so much if they are going to continue to dry fire the damn thing.
First of all, .22 rimfire guns should NOT be dry fired at all due to the fact that the firing pin will hit the breech end of the barrel and cause that "peening" which will eventually interfere with feeding.
There are a few guns made that have small clearance spaces milled at the breech end to allow the gun to be dry fired, but they are few and far between.
If you have to dry fire the gun, invest a couple of bucks on some "snap caps" (readily available on eBay) which will prevent the firing pin from hitting and peening the breech.
I don't know what kind of gun you have, but, if the mag is not locking it open as it should on a regular basis, the first step would be to give everything a good cleaning.
