Guys, I'm plenty familiar with the internal workings of rifles, and automatic pistols. Revolvers however are a different story. My 500 S&W has had a problem with misfires since it was new. The problem is exacerbated by the primers you use, and if you ever happen to flinch it (which luckily doesn't happen anymore) forget about it. The primer dimples, but doesn't fire. Put it back into battery and it'll fire every time.

Finally I took the grip off tonight and realized that the strain screw was not screwed all the way in. It's underneath the rubber grip, so it can't really back out. This leads to my question... what is the correct position for the strain screw on these things? Do I run it all the way in? Do I adjust it like a trigger sear and screw it in just far enough so that it fires reliably then give it another turn? I'm guessing it's the former, or some derivative thereof, but I'd like some confirmation. I can call S&W in the morning but I thought I'd throw this out here while I was thinking about it.

If I am not mistaken, it needs to be screwed in all the way. On my 4 inch S&W it is screwed in all the way, and I have never had a primer fail to fire, using different brand primers. Having said that, I have only been using WLR primers for the past 4 years.

The hammer spring needs to have tension on it to reliably set off primers. Some people back these out in an effort to lighten trigger pull, but usually just create the problem you are experiencing.

Run the screw all the way in. The big Smith already has a very nice trigger and there's no need to lighten it, especially on this model.

Outstanding! Thanks folks. That was the answer I was looking for. Like I said, it came this way, and it's been getting worse from what I can tell. This one wasn't the result of my tinkering for a change. I'll put some blue loctite on it and tighten it down.

BTW DEC, you couldn't be more right. My X-Frame is one of the first ones and it has an excellent trigger (except for the misfires of course).

Opportune thread. Both I & my brothers XVRs have exhibited the same issue.