I’ll update when I get it back and report if the spring was broken or never installed.
The smith said he can replace the spring, but he’s backed up, so it may be a week or two.
OK, I'm a little confused. You took the gun to a local smith, and he determined (through a function check, not disassembly?) that the spring was either missing or broken. Right?
Is the gun going back to Colt for repair, or are you going to have the local guy do it?? I am unclear on this.
If it is "just" a broken spring having your local smith replace it will fix the gun, (and if its ONLY two weeks, faster than I expect Colt would) but it does nothing to fix the problem. And, as mentioned, could possibly violate the warranty, so that if (if anything else goes wrong) Colt may not have to fix it.
It is
possible the spring broke /was missing during the test fire, some companies only test fire one round. Seems unlikely though that if it did, that it wasn't noticed...
Also possible Colt did NOT test fire the gun. Seems obvious they did not properly inspect the gun before shipment, so not test firing it might have been deliberate, or it might have been another screw up not caught by their QC. I don't know what Colt's standard is, today.
I'm told S&W fires every other chamber (once) as their test fire. I know at one time Ruger was said to fire all six, and not clean the gun before shipping. (proving the test fire was done) I do not know if they still do this today, or not.
Hard to believe, that a company that is so revered, would not test fire a revolver, that is deemed by so many, to be of such high quality, to be worth significantly more than competitors, that do test fire.
At one time, and for a long, long time, Colt's quality and the reverence of it was deserved. No more.
A Colt was the primary Army service pistol since before the Civil War until 1984. Yes, other guns were used, and in significant numbers (S&W, primarily) and all those GI 1911A1s not directly manufactured by Colt, but it was still considered a "Colt", even if it had another makers name on it.
Immense prestige, and deserved due to generations of good products and service. No more. Colt has been living off that reputation, and NOT the quality of their guns for the last 50 years or so. The exception being the Python, which was the top of the line showpiece gun.
The Colt of today is not the Colt of days long past. Nor, apparently are their products. The shining quality of the Colt name has been, and is being further tarnished every time they ship a defective gun.
Might be the Internet making things more visible, so problems seem larger than they actually are. I don't know about that. What I do know is Colt's reputation for being high quality and worth the price isn't what it once was.