Originally Posted by Drew Hause
Long splits without a ring bulge (usually with lifting of the rib of a SxS) are almost always from thin barrels.
I asked the metallurgical engineer at METL who supervised one of my failure studies how much the wall thins with stretching before bursting and his answer was "not much".

[Linked Image from photos.smugmug.com]

So tell me, Doc. If it doesn't stretch "much", where does the extra steel come from that goes into creating the big bulge? Be specific, please.

Measure the thickness of an uninflated balloon's wall, then measure it after it is inflated. What do you think the results will be?

"Not much" in one's man's vernacular may well be enough to cause a rupture, in another's.

May God bless America and those who defend her.