You know, everytime you shoot one of these, you're in essence, holding a pipe bomb up to your face. I own an old W Moore circa 1855. It looked good however just to be safe I had a ring test done, and had it borescoped and checked for cracks and micro fractures by a professional gun smith. She checked out just fine. If you have any doubts, have it checked out before you attempt to proof it. If it doesn't check out you have a nice wall hanger, if it does check out it'll give you some piece of mind. Keep in mind though what I initially said.
When I was in the Army, if something went wrong with the tank main gun, like going out of battery, once the system was checked out, borescoped, and corrected, it fell to the unit master gunner to ensure all the checks and precautions had been done. It was, after all, his responsibility to crawl inside and fire the first round off the hand crank or what they called the master blaster; hence their nickname. Having had done this more times than I can count on both 105mm and 120mm, the same thing always sticks in the back of your mind; this is one helluva pipe bomb I'm sitting next to. It's a chance you take every time you pull the trigger.
