My new S&W R8

[dragon813gt]

I was eying up the R8 and 627 V-comp. Sanity ruled the day and I bought a Franken CZ instead :laugh:

[Paul_R]

Let us know how it shoots. I might have to pick one up myself after the first of the year.

Well I've been shooting a couple of times since the OP and she's deadly accurate and points naturally in my hand. Trigger is awesome unfortunately reliability is not. Had to send it back to S&W for light primer strikes. On the bright side, S&W customer service is awesome.

[Virginian]

Wow! Nice find!

[Groo]

Groo here
If you put the rail on with a red dot don't be suprised if some rifle shooters feel bad at the 100yd line.
Those puppies SHOOT.

[rototerrier]

I have about 600 rounds through mine and I've had a hand full of light strikes. I seem to have about 1 / 100 shots. It appears to be related to high primers, but I've had a couple that didn't really support that. I may send mine in. I tried tightening the tension using the screw under the grip, mine was/is fully tight. Nothing has come loose, so if it is mechanical, there aren't any adjustments available to me to correct it.

The finish is holding up fairly well. Getting a bit of permanent wear around the front of the cylinder.

I do have a Burris Fast Fire 3 on mine and up close it's amazing.

At 100 yards I'm not the best with it. Shot this weekend and was able to only put 1 in 8 on a 1 x 1 steel plate at 100.

Put 7 / 8 on a 3 x 3 steel plate at a 100. The gun is certainly more capable than I am at those distances. The little red dot moves a lot.

[Paul_R]

I have about 600 rounds through mine and I've had a hand full of light strikes. I seem to have about 1 / 100 shots. It appears to be related to high primers, but I've had a couple that didn't really support that. I may send mine in. I tried tightening the tension using the screw under the grip, mine was/is fully tight. Nothing has come loose, so if it is mechanical, there aren't any adjustments available to me to correct it.

The finish is holding up fairly well. Getting a bit of permanent wear around the front of the cylinder.

I do have a Burris Fast Fire 3 on mine and up close it's amazing.

At 100 yards I'm not the best with it. Shot this weekend and was able to only put 1 in 8 on a 1 x 1 steel plate at 100.

Put 7 / 8 on a 3 x 3 steel plate at a 100. The gun is certainly more capable than I am at those distances. The little red dot moves a lot.

I would think high primers would have the opposite effect of a light primer strike. Regardless, mine was a pretty obvious problem with the gun. Pretty consistent 25% fail rate in DA mode. Primers were barely touched on the ones that failed. Didn't have any failures in SA mode. My tension screw was all the way down as well.

[rototerrier]

Mine fails in DA as well. Guess I should have mentioned that. SA is fine. What did they do to correct it and about how long did it take? This is currently one of my favorites and hate to be without it for any length of time.

[Paul_R]

I'll let you know tomorrow, it's at the local FedEx hub scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. It will come with a report. It took right at 3 weeks from when I shipped it. They emailed me a shipping label so this whole thing didn't cost me a dime. Like I said, awesome customer service.

FWIW, watch what you say when you talk to customer service. They like domestic factory ammo and reloads voids warranties.....

[rototerrier]

Point well taken, will do.

Looking forward do hearing the report.

[Dan Cash]

Light primer strike, exaserbated by high primers.
Expedient correction: Remove grips, loosen strain screw at bottom of grip, insert one or two "beer can" shims between main spring and strain screw, tighten strain screw, replace grips. Strain screw is a fitted part (or used to be) and is intended to be screwed all the way in.

[rototerrier]

After researching this a bit, looks like someone in another forum had suggested using a hollowed out spent primer as a shim. I did that and I can tell there is a slight increase in trigger pull. Will take it to the range and see how it does. It will either work or it won't. No harm in trying.

[Paul_R]

Point well taken, will do.

Looking forward do hearing the report.

Got it back just now. They replaced the firing pin.

[rototerrier]

Wanted to update this and let everyone know that adding the spent primer shim resolved my issues. I've fed several hundred rounds through it since making this modification and haven't had a single light strike. I've not noticed any significant difference in DA trigger pull, but I have noticed a significant increase in primer strike consistency. They look text book perfect.

Not going to say this will solve the problem for everyone, but it certainly solved it for me. No shipping and took less than 5 minutes to do.