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Just wondering what everyone's opinion was. It's always puzzled me how a longer barreled revolver can have higher muzzle velocities than a shorter, all else being equal. It would seen that the cylinder gap would be sufficient to relieve the pressure and cease or diminish acceleration down the barrel.
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You can only get so much gas through a small gap in the time it takes to get the bullet down the barrel.
Think about a tire with a leak in it. It doesn't usually go flat all at once. If the hole is small enough, it may actually maintain usable pressure for days. A larger hole may bleed pressure off in just a few minutes, but it still takes some amount of time.
The bullet is in the barrel for a VERY short amount of time, and while there's a leak at the cylinder gap, it's a relatively slow leak. So in the same way you can air up a tire and there may be enough air in the tire make it home even though it's leaking, there's still enough usable pressure in the barrel to accelerate the bullet even though it's leaking out around the cylinder gap.