Scott,
Thanks for the compliment. Its been a labor of love, with emphasis on both the words labor and love!
Lt12pdr wants me to fire it, but everyone else who is knowledgeable that I have spoken to says not to. I am not a reenactor so that pressure is not there, and the couple artillery reenactors I have spoken to are among the ones saying I shouldn't. I am not really that tempted, and if I did fire it ever, it would not be with anything approaching a full load due to concerns it might not survive real firing.
I have another carriage, but it needs some TLC. If it gets "conserved" and I do not sell it at my cost, I may keep it and someday use that one for a fire-able gun.
The rifling on this Noble Brothers tube is good so it must not have seen extensive use. As you may recall, it had three rounds jammed down the tube which were removed in the 1980s. Yesterday, Tom Bailey confirmed this was a form of disabling the cannon. Fortunately, the cascabel was not knocked off which was another thing done often when disabling guns. If, or when, it did fall into Yankee hands, I suppose they felt it wasn't worth rendering operable again considering the Union forces had plenty of Ordnance and Parrott rifles and almost certainly considered them to be superior.
