My 627 is really a good gun, but it was fairly rough at first. Now, it's as smooth as butter. I'll keep what everyone said in mind. I think the best thing to do with my 617 is to wear it in.Today's Smith is a far cry from your father's and grandfather's Smith.
If I remember correctly, I actually had to swap the hammer out with the one from a 686 as there was such extreme binding during handoff that it was maxing out my brother's Lyman trigger pull gauge. My 686 had some tooling damage that probably warranted it being returned. After seeing several other examples with the same damage, I decided against it. The gun shoots well and that was the main priority. My brother's 627 has been sent back to S&W three times and basically only the frame is left from the original / new gun that was purchased. Quality control is honestly pretty poor these days.