Man, what an ordeal. Using a mag in the gun really caused the slide to hang up on the way back so gave up on that. Always have been aware that the recoil spring should be in place and perfectly lined up so tried rotating the flat spring till the open end was pointing up. Finally got the slide lock to work. Whew!
May be a day or two before I try that again.
Should I still contact S&W for a new spring or does the fact I finally got it to work take care of that idea?