I've bought two 357 Mags, a 44 Mag, and a 45 Colt this year, they have been great out of the box as far as picking them up and shooting them. I also have a "used" Braztech/LSI 480 Ruger I'm not sure what has been done to it. I am sure that it was never taken down.
Prior to my first 92 purchase, I had prepped with the SG video, spring, and followers. I used the video to learn how to take down and reassemble the rifle but in that my rifles where feeding and ejecting cartridges without the case scratching and issues reported in the video, I left well enough alone. I did not replace any of the springs in my rifles, still have them in my parts bin. I did replace the magazine springs with the stainless steel springs offered by The Smith Shop but really I don't think that the spring or follower needs to be replaced. That's just my thoughts for the average guy, spend the money improving the factory open sights.
I've been a levergun guy my whole life and when Steve didn't hit on the forearm or remove it for cleaning, I thought "hmmm" and actually questioned the value of the video. It is a great video that will help you learn to work with your rifle, better than anything I've found on the web, but he cowed away from something that is very important with levergun accuracy and simple maintenance. I'm not sure why he didn't touch on it, may be because it might hit on dressing the notch cut in the barrel? The order of manufacture of my rifles has been the 45 Colt, 44 mag, and then the two 357 Mags. The barrel band fit of the forty caliber rifles was awful, they are both 2011 rifles. The two 35 caliber rifles has been quite good. They are both 2012 rifles. The last, purchased right off the boat a month ago through Davidson's was excellent. The screw slipped right into the band without the slightest resistance against the barrel. They only thing I did to dress the forearm fit was cut the middle out of the forearm, the part that extends longitudinally between the barrel and magazine tube (use an Exacto knife as it shaves easily) and I drilled the screw hole through the wood on step larger. I think Braztech is paying attention to the rifles and making adjustments back in Brazil as customer service claims are made. It is expensive to pay for rifles to be returned to Florida and shipped back. A good measure of this is through the parts I purchased a year ago when I anticipated the purchase of a 92 (I like "consumable" parts on my bench) against the parts I purchased within the last couple of months. The barrel band screw is now slightly longer and has a "tit" on it to help guide it into the band. This is a change to simple, great change to the original screws.
About ammo feed. I do not buy ANY factory ammo. I load my own and cast my own bullets. I would have expected more issues with ammo feed doing it my way but have had none. I have made a chamber cast of each rifle and slugged the barrel. From that, I have only adjusted the diameter of the bullet as appropriate from the information I've collected. The 357 rifles seem most problematic from the posts here but I have not had any issue with my 135, 175, and 190-grain bullets. You can "Chuck Conner" the ammo right on through the action as fast as you can work the action. This is the ammunition I am using.
Notice that the 190-grain bullet uses 38 Spl brass. This is simply to overcome the cast bullet case swell issues, the cartridge is loaded to a 357 Mag overall length (1.59") and pressure.
May be in the "The Ammo: Factory Stuff" someone could start a post with the participants being very specific in their reports as to what works and what doesn't. I just don't under stand the issues in that I don't shoot factory stuff. My suspect is that the nose isn't long enough with the typical factory bullet weight offerings, it is binding slightly below what little ramp there is into the chamber. I know through my bullet design work that short noses on semi-auto handgun cartridges is a real deal stopper, it binds against the ramp. Factory ammo for the 357 Mag is made for revolvers without any consideration moving from the tube to the chamber.
........you're the guys that own them & shoot them.
) before I even heard of SGs DVD kit.