i remember years ago my father had a winchester 1906 .22 gallery gun that he got working for a fair. it had thousands of .22 shorts through it, even though it was a .22 long rifle chamber. the "chamber ring" apparently started as a ring of residue but as the years past the ring became pitted and the rest of the chamber was completely eroded out (likely due to the sandblasting effect of early rimfire powder). i am not 100% sure if this will happen with a lever .44 and im not to familiar with revolvers so im only guessing that you might get problems if you dont clean it often.