I am working on my landlords magnum 20. he gave it to me with the bolt stuck open and a very worn and cracked stock. I took off the stock and the bolt snapped shut and now will fire a round but it will not eject it. My first notion was the friction ring(s) but upon further investigation i noticed the carrier dog is "Floating" is it supposed to be able to move freely(up and down) or is it just the ammo/friction rig. Thanks gents-

223 Varmint,

On A5's always take down and look for broken parts. Check the locking block and breach bolt for cracks. Most A5's need a gunsmith that understand there functioning cycle. Most fail to eject due to lack of grease on the magazine tube. The difference in the Rem. 1100 type guns and the A5's is that I could solve the Rem. problems in about 10 minutes, but would take an hour to go through the A5. Most parts in the A5 needed to be fitted on each gun. Rem. was mostly exchange of parts. Hope this helps.

There was a small piece of metal that fell out when I took the stock off. It looked like it might be part of the extractor. .....BUt the extractor looks to be intact. Is the carrier suppsed to be free moving up and down? thanks again

Look for the carrier spring. It should be holding the carrier under tension. This is in the trigger guard assembly. If you don;t have a break down of the A5, look here.
http://www.again.net/~steve/page7b.htm

Les,
I am breaking down the ole' gun right now. will post back if I cant figure it out. BTW, I have A manual for the gun, but that website is awsome. All the websites that I have found charge for there use. Thanks again.