No. But that is a common, yet erroneous assumption.
Cylinder locked is BAD news. This is the root of Colt's "won't hold timing for long" problem. Colt's have
the hand pushing up and the bolt holding solid so the cylinder is locked solid at firing. Seems wonderful, and works
fine if every cylinder hole lines up perfectly with the bore at that moment. The trouble is that they don't. So that
bullet will NOT make a corner as it exits the cylinder, but it WILL hammer the heck out of the hand at each shot as
it lines the cylinder up. Highly variable effect due to variations in how accurately the cyl bolt slots are cut relative
to the cylinder holes. When all are very close, timing is good for a long time. One or two off....timing does not
last as long.
S&W, OTOH, has a touch of slop. So, the bullet pushes the cylinder over a little right or left as needed and the bullet
goes on it's merry way, no harm to the innards. Way better, and this is why Smith's hold timing for years and year
and years, pretty much forever, actually.
Back to quick inspection.....take your good light and a set of appropriate gauge pins. .38 Spl and .357 should take
a .357 or 358 pin in the front of the cylinder if it is properly clean. Crud can defeat this, needs to be clean. A
.44 should have .430 throats, +/- 0.001, ideally. A .45 cal should have .452 or .453 throats, ideally. A couple thousandths
larger can be dealt with with larger bullets, but much more than .359 or .432 or .454 and you are going to have some
trouble getting best accy from the gun. Too small is easily fixed by reaming and polishing to your ideal dimension.
Look for an evenly cut, smooth forcing cone.
Bill