Well... I think I figured it out on my own. I knocked the pin out on the front of the bolt. Out popped the firing pin and a small cylindrical piece that was flat on the striker side and peened a lot on the firing pin side that would have been between the firing pin and striker. I flipped it around so the flat side would be on the firing pin side and the peened side on the striker side and it looked like the firing pin presented probably twice as far. I figured I could just do that and I'd be fine (and probably still would be).

But... I went back to the schematic on numrich as I though it was some little extension piece... and it looks like my firing pin is actually broken into 2 pieces.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_HC59M8CMvUMryzOyOxvPpl_dxjhrIHt

So! I'll be ordering a new firing pin and the tube magazine follower spring as I was able to get it taken apart w/o breaking the old one as well. Fingers crossed! These 2 things should correct the poor loading when the tube is near empty and hopefully make it fire 100% reliably. Then I can shore up the trigger to get it tight side to side... maybe smooth it ever so slightly and keep it running.