Hello all , been lurking here recently , great place for info.
Last week I picked up a pair of 13-2s from a local shop. Both obviously former LEO tools. Both have typical holster wear and dings. One is very tight , side plate removal / inspection shows it as practically a new hardly fired weapon. Other is a little looser , obvious trigger / spring work having been done , nicest trigger of any of my revolvers. Here's my problem : The more worn 13 will not release empty 357 cases without a serious struggle. The empties from this 13 will slide in and out of my 19 ,66 and the other 13 with no problems at all. Empties shot from the others will not go in or out easily from the problem 13. Factory Remington and Federal 158 ammo same results.New rounds drop into place with no problem.
I have used a Lewis Lead Remover and my favorite 7.62 Sweets bore cleaner. No change to problem.Cylinder bores are as clean as could be , no residue or fouling at all. This one has me stumped. Thanks for any ideas or shared experience.

I had one cylinder of a 65 do this. Couldn't see anything, but after multiple cleanings it freed up. I bet a lot of 38 was shot out of it.

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Dave

+1 on this. The chambers may look clean, but if like bovw says, if lots or only .38 Special was shot in the problem gun, may be lots of cleaning necessary.

Check to see if empty 38s are tight or maybe shoot a few

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

The extractor star might have been replaced by an agency armorer just before it was released for sale. If so the dimensions are a little tight. Find a pistolsmith with a 357 Mag chamber reamer and have him run it into all 6 chambers. I will bet that the problem goes away. ..........

For cleaning the .38 special crud out of a .357 chamber I chuck the cleaning rod with brush attached into drill and slow speed clean out the junk. Just don't over do it.

Copper Chore Boy strands wrapped around a cleaning brush work well.

If you reload, grab a .357 case, flare the mouth slightly and then use a deburring tool to sharpen the case mouth. Insert it into the chambers to clean. Works great!

My money is on dirty chamber(s).

Have you confirmed it's .357 rated? There are some 13s out there that aren't. Too, there could have been a cylinder swap.

If all's in order that way, as others have suggested thorough cleaning is in order.

From there, there's a chance the charge holes are poorly machined, have some chatter and need honing.

After that, could be the charge hole are undersized and need to be reamed.

Have you actually fired the revolver. I have 'em that won't take spent brass but shoot and extract fine with factory fresh. If you have fired and had sticking, and none of the previous possibilities are the cause, there's a chance that pitting in one or more charge holes is causing expansion under fire and subsequent sticking. There's nothing to do for pitting in a charge hole.

I had to use this method to clean out charge holes in a 19-2 that was primarily used for PPC type matches for many years. .357 drop right out now.

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Tony

I'd inspect the mouths of the chambers under magnification for possible burrs. Lift the ejector and carefully look over the entire circumference of each chamber. It doesn't take much of a burr to cause a problem like you describe. And they're fairly easy to remove.

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas.
For sure 357 rated , spent 38 brass in and out no problem.

It looks like I'll put the lewis through it again and then try the brush/drill method. After that I'll be searching for a smith with a bore reamer.
Oh the perils of buying anything used but I'd take this 40 year old beater over any of the company's off the shelf new offerings.

Thanks again all of you.