Gentlemen,
I am certainly not an expert on metals or engineering, but here's my take on the subject. Take it for what it's worth.....
Many people still have a little bias towards the word "cast" because it denotes many of the products from much earlier in our technological history, ala 1800's. Great breakthroughs in metalworking in the early part of this century were always talked about as being "forged", giving a connotation of "weak" & "cheap" to anything that was still being made by old fashioned casting methods. It seems to our feeble minds that if we hear something referred to as being from "cast metal", it must be a step backwards in quality or of durability. Not so.... In fact, modern investment casting techniques can produce parts of a precision and toughness that can only be dreamed of by those who are entrenched in forging methods.
Modern nvestment cast parts have the advantage that they are pretty much fully formed as they are broken from the slurry mold, right down to finely polished surfaces. The only thing that (usually) still has to be done is drilling & tapping holes and putting on a finish (blue or polymer). Not only is this much cheaper than conventional forging & milling, but gives a stronger part as well.
Milling procedures that must be done to forged parts are areas of potential weakness during future operational stresses. Investment cast parts avoid this by having all these areas "pre-stress relieved".
Many people are not aware that many if not most of our modern rifles and handguns have had investment cast frames & receivers dating from the early 70's and even back into the 60's. Many people still think that those fine machining marks on the underside of their "BIG WHAMBO MAGNUM ELEPHANT STOMPER" rifle's receiver were made when the chunk of steel was cut on a milling machine. In reality, those same fine machine marks were made on the original master part and were then faithfully reproduced, fine line by fine line, on each and every wax copy by the thousands that went into the casting shop for reproduction.
While there are still some firearms out there that are made with forged & milled parts, most are today made with cast parts. We are better off for it..........
Just my opinion guys.
Swampy