At the range yesterday and my beloved Rossi 357mag rifle bound up. WTF????? Had 4 rds in the mag with no way at the range to get them out as I didn't have a screwdriver with me. Luckily, it was the last couple of rounds before we were going to pack up anyway.
Got home and while cleaning my brass, I noticed that one of the 357mag cases didn't have a primer in it. Interesting. Then I found another. Really interesting. After dealing with the spent brass, I remove the mag plug, dumped out the spring, follower, and remaining ammo so the rifle was safe as it bound up after it fired. I played with the lever a bit trying to rack it back and forth to free it and suddenly it slid open easy as pie.
Upon inspection, I noted that there were 2 bent up primer cups that fell out when I rolled the rifle over. Looking closer, neither had their anvils so I went looking in the action for them. I found one and thought I was good to go so after reassembling the mag cap, spring, and follower, I loaded up some dummy rds I have and checked function but found that the rounds wouldn't move back onto the lifter as they were being held in the magazine by the cartridge stop attached to the left cartridge guide.
I pushed on the spring loaded cartridge stop and it felt bound up a bit so I removed the front mag plug, dumped out the spring, follower, and dummy ammo so the rifle was safe again and looked closely at the stop for damage. I didn't find any damage but under my glass and light, I could see a tiny bit of shiny brass under the stop that looked to be binding it.
I removed the buttstock, loosened the left cartridge guide a bit, and sprayed the inside with brake cleaner. Sure enough, a primer anvil made it's appearance from under the stop and I was able to flush it out of the action. I tightened the guide, re-attached the buttstock, and reassembled the mag cap, spring, and follower. Then I took my dummy rounds, loaded them up and cycled them through the rifle without a hitch.
Problem solved and I cleaned my action to boot.