Well, back to my original post. Remember I had sent the Covert R9 to the factory which found an "out of spec" firing pin retainer to be the cause of failures to feed and breech locked open. It was repaired and returned, but I could not get one of the four grip screws out (had trouble with the other three which had a white glue on them...loctite white?). Stripped the screw eventually. Karl kindly sent me a UPS number and I returned the pistol at his expense. After several weeks and after sending off for a "tool to do a screwectomy" (medical humor in his words) they were unable to solve the problem. They have replaced the frame with a new one (new serial #), noting the that finish on the frame is factory even on the Coverts, and they have tuned, polished, etc. everything else to Covert standards. Should arrive here tomorrow 2 day UPS. Looking forward to getting it back...I'll get a few hundred rounds through it and start to carry again (I hope!). I'll give followup.