Stupid Revolver Question from a Semi- Auto Guy

[Webleymkv]

Quote:
the diameter of the case was left the same but that of the bullet was reduced to the same as the inside diameter of the case.
The bore of the barrel was also reduced.

In the case of the .44 Russian, yes. However, some other cartridges like .41 Long Colt and .32 Short and Long Colt had bore diameters larger than that of the bullet. Rather than standardize bore and bullet diameter, these cartridges were simply changed from heel-based bullets to inside-lubricated bullets with hollow bases which were meant to obturate to bore diameter when fired (to be fair, .41 Colt did have its bore diameter reduced from .406-.408 down to .400-.401 but that was still oversize for the .386-.388 bullets that were used). While obturation probably did occur to some degree, cartridges using undersize bullets with hollow-bases always suffered a reputation for being less accurate than cartridges with bullet and bore diameters that matched.