It always amazes me the extreme cautions or warnings some people make about these matters. Yes, common sense caution is warranted when the history and condition of a gun is not known.
First of all, the material condition of the gun, structurally speaking, should be no mystery to a competent gunsmith. The only mystery should be the actual history of the weapon.
That said, even the nature of the history of the weapon leaves physical evidence.
Fatigue and stress cracking can be seen by close visual inspection. Even interior spaces can be closely inspected with a bore scope. I suppose, if the need were felt, other NDT (Non-Destructive Testing) methods could be used to detect cracks not visible to the naked eye under normal conditions. The easiest and cheapest would be to use a dye penetrant. Eddy current testing or or ultrasonic testing might be an option, too. But I can't really see going beyond a dye penetrant test.
Metal creepage is also easy to check by miking out the cylinder dimensions (inside and outside) and bore dimensions and comparing them to the factory standards (if known). Alternatively, these measurements can be compared to other guns of the same model or, failing that, similar guns of the same caliber and/or manufacturer.
Mechanical wear of moving parts can also be easily observed by the naked eye, or with low magnification (5X or 10X glass). Cylinder/bore alignment can be easily checked by a gunsmith.
And other than the advances in metalurgy available at any given time, the age of a weapon alone has no bearing on the strength of the materials used in the construction. The metals do not "rot" or otherwise weaken with time, though they may rust or pit depending on the level of care they've received over the years. (Another condition easily observable by eye.) As an example, first generation Colt SAA pistols weren't designed and built to handle the chamber pressures available in most modern loadings of .45 Colt. Thus the need to use "Cowboy Loads".
I'd advise a thorough cleaning/lubrication of the gun, as you should do with any gun in the first place. Look it over yourself for any obvious signs, then take it to a competent gunsmith for a complete inspection.
If the gunsmith doesn't find anything wrong, then take it to the range with some light loads. Given the age of the gun, I'd not advise hot loads which may be available in modern cartridges. This is simply because, given the age of the gun in question, the gun may not have been designed for those kinds of chamber pressures because they weren't in use at that time.
You should, of course, already be wearing safety glasses at the range. If you wish, wear some leather gloves until you've fired enough to be comfortable with it's reliability.
As rcmodel says...if it works reliably, then you've got a nightstand gun.
