Originally Posted By: Drew Hause

Anything else?


Something I've never seen discussed at length is, notwithstanding adequate wall thickness etc., can metal fatigue be an overlooked factor in old doubles? Metal fatigue is usually not detectable to the naked eye or through caliper measurements. Yet military research (albeit that research has been mostly done on very, very big guns) has clearly established that metal fatigue in such guns is real and that the safe and useful life of a gun has its limits, even if that gun was always operated within its design specs. Formulas have been developed to predict when a military gun needs to be taken out of service.