I had a similar experience with an old 1970's model 36 (nickel plated) that was given to me after a neighbors husband died. The gun had sat in a drawer for so long that the nickel had a fog on it. I cleaned it up the trigger was atrocious. I pulled the side plate and just added the tiniest drops of RemOil on the moving parts and voila! Back to being slicker than whale snot in an ice flow!

I guess the lesson is even a revolver needs a little TLC every once in a while.