You won’t see the rounds in the cylinder on an SAA.
Made incorrect assumptions about the “shooter” here— you’re right.
So, this was during an “action” shot (and even if it wasn’t considering it’s Baldwin) he sure would not have pulled open the cover and clicked the cylinder beforehand... he just cocked and shot. whooeee. Whereas on a range, one would pick up a ‘peacemaker’ and open it up to check the cylinder before commencing fire.
No way would any normal trained gun owner do this— certainly wouldn’t take the word of an “armourer” idiot like this one. There is more to the story... has to be. Live rounds do not “end up on the table”.
Specifically who was “plinking” with a set pistol beforehand— sure the police will find the morons.
An astute person would see case rims in the recoil shield/ cylinder gap in any oblique angle. That ought to prompt a check of chamber mouths at least, again easy to do with a SA revolver. Draw the hammer to safety notch, rotate the cylinder manually and from the oblique front, avoiding the muzzle, note crimped blank mouths. A slug would be obvious.
Better yet, open the loading gate and drop rounds into your hand....a big lead slug would blatantly obvious and would stop the whole production...