I agree with the others above on their Firing Pin conclusion as I've been shooting CVA's for over 25 years. The Firing Pin would have pushed back in if stuck or he'd of had to really slam the action shut hard and had the pin really stuck (froze) in there for this to happen.
CVA does carry a Firing Pin Kit, but I think there still "sold out" of it as a month ago I went to get some replacement parts and the firing pin kits were sole out but they did have the parts separate, firing pin, firing pin housing, firing pin screw and firing pin o washer, all this stuff is cheap. I doubt you'll get them to give up anything for Free I tried that with the Optima Pro I got that was found in the garbage. I figured since it had a supposed "Lifetime Guarantee" that I could at least get the firing pin stuff and a possible breech plug out of them but no go.
I asked about the "Lifetime Warranty" and what if I needed parts for my first generation ACCURA and they said good luck finding parts. I won't get into that any longer as I love my CVA's and won't bash CVA, I just wish they had parts for older CVA's and I'm not talking too old just back to 15 years ago doesn't seem that old to me.
Anyway I always clean each and every part of My MLer (ACCURA) after each outing, it still has the same breechplug and firing pin assembly as it came with and the parts are as good as the day I got it. Treat your MLer good and it will treat you good.