Looking for help,Ideas on building a 10 gauge breech loading cannon

[one thumb short]

Hi I went to a supplier to pick-up some aluminm to build a mold for my bronze cannon .While I was ther I asked if they had any bronze that I could use to build a 10 gauge cannon.They looked a round to see what they had,I asked if they had naval bronze.They said they did ,it was a 12 ft piece in 2 inch .They asked how much I wanted.I asked if they had any rems,he said yes but it was 360 brass 8 inches long by 2 inch,He said it was the best for machining of all the brass or bronze and was strong and similar to naval bronze /brass 464 .I bought it and am hoping to build a 10 gauge cannon breech.Has any one used this material and is it strong enought.The data sheets I have found looks like it.The sales man said it is strong because it is drawn not cast as some are and has a very good finish ,and bright,
  Any help would be helpful as this will be the first for me to build as I bought the last cannon(looking for a bronze cannon).If it is not strong enought I still am going to build a muzzle loader for noise and maybe shoot balls .Any idea for a bore size?I would like to build the 10 gauge if possible ,I sold a 12 gauge because it was a short barrel and could shoot regular 12 gauge shells.I think going 10 gauge is better as the ammo is hard to get,I have some 10 gauge shells I can use to make blanks out of ,just for hoildays,as I hope to go to the range to shoot and have fun.Hope I get help as I did on my other bronze cannon,bunch of good guys on this site and have a lot of good info for newbees like me.One thumb short

[GGaskill]

You might short chamber your piece to make it impossible to load standard shot-bearing shells.

[one thumb short]

Thanks for the idea,I did not mention that the 10 gauge shells are old brass shells that I can short chamber so I can not load shotshells.one thumb short

[Dresden]

HERE IS AN IDEA

[GGaskill]

Here are specifications for Naval Brass (46400) and Freecutting Brass (CDA 360).  Note the tensile strength numbers.  Naval brass is a lot stronger than freecutting brass. 

[de_lok]

HERE IS AN IDEA

Dresden, would you have the rest of this article?

[justashooter in pa]

the 464 spec is equal in mechanical property to 709 gr 50W that steel bridge beams are made from.  hardly necessary in this application.

as for simplest design, wish i had pics of a signal gun breech i made end of summer, but am out of town and took no pix. simply stated, sliding breech plate (1" thick by 3" by 3.5") in retaining angle tray welded to breech block, with floating firing pin in slide plate, and lanyard hammer. overkill, for sure.

[Frank46]

Kinda pricey stuff anyway you look at it. When they retubed the condensers where I worked they pulled them out and had a machine that chopped them up into about 4" pieces, then spit the pieces into a 55 gallon drum. Didn't  take long to fill the drum. Soon as it was full it was capped and another drum put in place. And they had a guy there 24/7 watching the drums so they didn't grow feet and walk away. Which happened when they took the bronze covers off a heat exchanger one night and in the morning they were no longer there. Never did find the covers, so they took some ballistic grade lexan (bullet proof) and machined it into the shape of the covers and drilled all the holes for the bolts. Kinda funny as overtime you could see the zebra mussels growing. Was a big problem with the mussels as the river was getting cleaner and they would plug up the tubes. Frank

[one thumb short]

Justashooter  If you look at the tensile strenght figures  464 has 75,000 per sq.inch and 360 has 58,000 per sq. inch .I think I read in one of the posts you need 30,000 for a black powder cannon .This is for bronze and I am not building a bridge with bronze so I do not where that came from.I have put this project on hold and might make it a muzzle loader both are for noise not projectiles,so not the load on the barrel.I am still researching safe ways to shoot my Bronze cannon and my gb cannon.Thanks for the input.one thumb short