Since I had to be in the South Bend, Ind. area recently, I thought I'd take the tube off my cannon (the one in the picture) and hopefully get it over to South Bend Replicas (formerly known as Barneys Cannons - years ago) and see if they could give their opinion as to the safety of this tube. I had called them ahead of time to make sure they'd be able to take a peek at it. Well, I arrived before they even opened shop and they were extremely accomodating - immediately. We got the barrel into the shop and they took over an hour to check it out and give it the once over. Turns out, that in their opinion, it'd be safe to shoot with no problems just a little concened with the chance of lingering sparks/embers that could remain on the fairly sharp rear corner of the chamber. I'll just flood it after each shot and naturally wait the required time plus a few minutes before charging for the next shot. The President of the company, J.Paul Barnett, personally did the inspecting and I'll have to say that he is a really nice chap and went way out of his way to help me. It was a real treat to look around his shop and see many many cannon tubes in various stages of completion. I had already purchased two Dahlgrens from him in the past and have been totally satisfied with both of them. I'll certainly have to give a strong thumbs up on his service, products and diplomacy. Sorry to make this so lengthy but wanted to tell others of my very pleasant experience with the firm, South Bend Replicas, Inc. Thanks. Blaster (Bob in CO)