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stronger than the cast steel frames, but not quite as strong as stainless steel or chrome moly steel.
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That makes no sense. A forging can be chromoly steel, stainless steel, aluminum or even brass. "Forging" has nothing to do with the material used and for the record, the guns you're referring to are chromoly steel. Most modern firearm steels have chromium and molybdenum in their composition, making them chromoly steels. Stainless simply has much more chromium, IIRC it takes 11% or 12% to make it "stainless". Not to even mention the fact that you can't say that one is stronger than the other without knowing the specific alloy, heat treatment and manufacturing method used.
Far as I know, they've always been forged and nobody casts barrels.
Ruger has proven how strong a casting can be. Freedom Arms frames are also cast and stand up to a lifetime of 65,000psi loads.