Brake pedal is really stiff

I appreciate you helping but I am not understanding your logic.

First, I have been listening and I have inspected the drums on more than one occassion. No over turning, no strange wear, no grooves, no nothing that tells me the drums are the problem. The shoes just have the normal slight glazing as well as normal wear. Either way, I'm still going to see if the drums are possibly the problem.

I don't understand how using a second set of drums for comparison is better than "throwing parts at it" and swapping in a known good set of drums to see if that was the problem. I don't have a brake lathe to test for wear so I'll just troubleshoot the drums by putting my Duster drums on and seeing if the braking feels any different. It's free and only takes about 45 minutes.