my saga still continues as far as getting the throats opened up. I was not able to find anyone in my area interested in opening the throats up so I ended up contacting S&W again. I asked what the charges would be to have them do the work and they estimated ~170$. I'm not comfortable doing this type of work myself so I asked if they could evaluate the piece, knowing full well they won't cover it, and then elect to pay them to do it. Yah, not my first choice but hopefully they can handle it.

That was 1 month ago, they said I would receive a shipping label to send in the piece. After several emails asking ***, I finally received the label and will be sending it in on Monday. They are definitely not the same S&W from years back. Live and learn. When I receive the piece back, I'll update how it went.

Dan