I appreciate your concern, but I don't see any specific reason to suspect I'd have a catastrophic failure. It will either work right and fire the round... or the trigger will lock-up and it will not fire the round. The gun itself is otherwise in brand spanking new right-out-of-the-box condition.

In regard to trusting S&W warranty repair service to do all the right things... this is where I get slightly cynical. Maybe I've been hanging around this forum for too long, but I've read way too many stories of guns needing repeat visits to the mothership before a problem or set of problems are fully addressed and made right. This is the world we live in today and so I want to make sure that if this 442-1 has got to go back that I have identified all problems, not just the first one I found.

I also remain cautiously optimistic that the gun will loosen up and work correctly if I give it a chance. Keep in mind that this is an intermittent problem (albeit a fairly frequent intermittent problem) and those are the problems that the mothership tends not to get right the first time around.

Anyway, I am back home now and will start messing with it as time and my many doctor appointments allow. Unfortunately, another pressing family crisis just emerged last night, so it could be another week or so before I make a decision about sending it back or pursuing some other solution.