Well, to make a long story short, this process continued until (reluctant as I was) I had to admit there was something wrong with the gun.  I took it home and stripped it down.  Cleaned it, but left it mostly dry of oil, except the two guide rods which the bolt rides on.

Took the gun out again.  I shot about 200 rounds, with one misfire. This is more like it, I thought.

Cleaned the gun at home, took the gun out again to the range.  Took along my brothers.  We had the same problem I had the first time out.  I watched the action as my brother fired it from the bench.  Pop...pop...click.  Now I saw the problem.  The bolt was not returning all the way to its forwardmost position, but was stopping about 1/16" short.  So, the firing pin was not able to fully strike the shell.  I could see this by watching the bolt.  Upon firing, it moved so fast that I couldn't actually see it move back and forth, but I could easily tell the difference between its initial position and its final resting position.  The result is the appearance of the bolt, upon firing, moving backward a fraction of an inch.  I manually pushed the bolt forward.  The gun fired when Adam pulled the trigger.  I kept doing this, and the gun never misfired.

I concluded that I wasn't adequately oiling the action rods. The friction was enough to stop the bolt just short of the fully closed position. I now pay closer attention when oiling these after I cleaning the gun, and I haven't had the problem again.

-Brian

I too have a 597 and I had some of the problems that you described about the gun misfiring. My fix was much the same as yours.  After that first day of shooting, I completely stripped down the gun and clean all of the parts. I was amazed a the simplicity of all the internals.  There is not very many mechanical parts. What I had found was that the gun had come from the factory with some grease that was very thick. I am pretty confident that because of the thickness the mechanical parts were not moving as smoothly as they should have been.  After I cleaned all of the internals, the gun fired like a charm. -David P.

Hi, I've also just picked up one of these, the problems you are mentioning could also be related to the guide rods, I found when re-assembling them, don't tighten the set screws very tight, I found that having them just touch the rods was sufficient to keep them in place, if I tightened only 1/8th of a turn more, the rods would start to deform, and would cause binding in the bolt, I backed them off, and the bolt snapped shut.

-Frank

If spent shells aren't ejecting properly, and are jamming the bolt, you may need to carefully oil your action rods that the bolt rides on.  Not enough oil, and the bolt will be too slow.  Too much oil, and grime and soot will accumulate, forming a sludge.

If the bolt isn't autoloading the next round after a shot, it's probably related to your magazine.  Make sure your loading it properly.  The front end of the first round should be sticking above the top of the magazine.  Giving the bottom of the magazine a good smack with the palm of your hand when you've filled the mag should knock the rounds into alignment.

If the mag's seen a lot of rounds without being cleaned out, it may have accumulated enough dirt and grime to prevent the spring from working properly.  To disassemble, take the same Allen wrench that you use to remove the action rods, and stick the tip between the lip of the bottom cap, and the body of the mag, in the gap right in front of the widest part of the mag.  Push the wrench outward slightly, and the cap should come free.  Hang on, and don't let the spring take off.  Clean it, and reassemble.  Good for another 1000 rounds or more.

-Brian Crawford