I really think that cast vs forging is really not much of an issue today. I'm a mechanical engineer retired from Dana Corp.
One of my marketing/sales functions was to sell large univeral joint driveshafts to the steel industry for mfgr hot roll steel (2,300 deg F ingots) into steel coils in a half dozen passes through the rolling mill. These 42 ft long, 23 Metric ton driveshafts manufactured by our affiliate in Japan were powered by 5,000 and 6,000HP electric motors under extreme rolling mill heat, dirt, moisture, and heavy shock conditions.
Both the cast and forged steel U-joint knuckles equally withstood these operating conditions. Many customers insisted upon forged components due to past useage history - tradition fades very slowly in many industries and not only with shotgun actions.
