delivered as promised by FedEx .... per the enclosed note, the problem was a broken hammer spring .... it was well protected by packaging .... after this issue, I've decided to use Carlson's snap caps .... I figure that can't hurt .... observation : as mentioned in post #34, when we first purchased it, the trigger pull was rather heavy .... over time it smoothed out but in looking back, I now believe the OEM hammer spring wasn't right from the get-go .... as repaired, there is a significant improvement in the trigger pull and I'm looking forward to firing it ....