A few discussions on pitting recently have led me to ponder two questions, I'm too lazy to look up the equations to figure it out myself, I'm sure someone will know..
Assuming two identical single 12ga. barrels, same bore size and wall thickness. Barrel A has a 0.004" pit on the interior, barrel B has a 0.004" pit on the exterior.
To repair barrel A the I.D. is opened up 0.008, to repair barrel B the OD is reduced by 0.008. Which leaves a stronger barrel, less likely to give way under pressure?
I know that taking the material off the inside results in less material lost. OTOH the proof house will declare a barrel out of proof if the bore gets too big but don't specify any lower limits for wall thickness if metal is taken from the exterior and the bore left alone.
I specified single barrels since I realize that when making the same comparisons with SxS bbls. the area under the rib comes into play. My question boils down to this... would you rather have to strike pits off an exterior or hone them out of the interior (all else being equal, don't factor in rebluing, etc., just on issues of strength).
The second question is which is more likely to give way, an interior pit or an exterior one of the same depth? I would think it's better to have the constant surface on the interior so an exterior pit would be stronger. Right or wrong?
Thanks, Rob
