An old, pinned mod 19 that worked fine with 38's and then bound up after shooting about a half dozen 357's. All ammo was commercial.

Got the cylinder open, emptied shells out of cylinder, pushed the cylinder back in and the gun would rotate with great difficulty or wouldn't rotate at all when pulling back on the hammer.

With the cylinder swung out and pushing back on the cylinder release, the hammer, hand, etc. all functioned perfectly normal on both single and double action.

With the cylinder back in the gun, I looked at the gun from the side and you could see even spacing around the cylinder.

I took a tooth brush and cleaned under the ejector star. Cyclinder rotates when out of the gun.

Any ideas on what the problem is? Recommendations?

Thanks

Try screwing your ejector rod back into your cylinder. Tey do work loose at times.

Well I would say follow SOUPY's advise and check the ejector rod for "back-out" which is a common occurrence. If that is what the problem is, take the opportunity to unscrew it all the way, disassemble and thoroughly clean it, reassemble and tighten with a piece of leather over the knurled tip to protect it, and DON'T FORGET TO PUT EMPTY CARTRIDGES IN THE CYLINDER BEFORE TIGHTENING IT. They keep the cylinder parts in alignment while tightening.

If that is not the problem, you might have small particles of unburnt powder caught under the star wheel, or you might also check for excess lead build up on the forcing cone. When you use a .357 Magnum for shooting mostly .38 specials out of, then shoot magnum loads, they sometimes loosen up cumulative lead deposits and put them in the wrong places. Not to say you should not shoot .38's, it's just a good idea to clean the revolver very thoroughly before firing Magnums out of it.



chief38

The above is good advice. An exc cleaner for removing the crud is CRC breakleen, which is a spray auto brake parts cleaner! It dries fast and degreases leaving no residue. Its non flammable but use in a well ventilated area or outside. Remove the guns grips before using because it can damage certain wood or plastic. Its also cheap and available at auto stores or Wal Mart.