I picked up a 7/8 wt Viscount MK III with spare spool a few years ago with the intention of using it for great lakes steelhead and salmon. The first morning out on my fall salmon fishing trip the pawl ground all the teeth off the center sprocket/gear. I switched to the spare spool for the afternoon and proceeded to grind all the teeth off that sprocket/gear as well. I returned the reel to Cortland (Hardy's US distributor) and ended up getting a JLH 8/9 to replace it. After landing many, many salmon with the reel there is no detectable wear of any kind.

I don't know if Hardy just had a bad batch of sprocket/gears and I happened to get two, or if the problem was more wide spread amoungst that particular line. I do know that the problem hasen't shown up in any of the Marquis, Lightweight, or JLH reels I own. I am currently am down to 5 Hardys (all spring and pawl design)and they are probably my favorite line of reels. I personally wouldn't buy another Viscount though.

Probably NOT what you wanted to hear.

Good luck