Thick cylindrical shells under transverse loading exhibit an elephant foot buckling mode, whereas moderately thick cylindrical shells show a diamond buckling mode. There exists some intermediate geometry at which the transition between buckling modes can take place. This behavior is significantly influenced by the radius-to-thickness ratio and the material yield strength, rather than the length-to-radius ratio and the axial force. This paper presents a critical value at which the transition of buckling modes occurs as a function of the radius-to-thickness ratio and the material yield strength. The result shows that the circumferential wave number of the diamond buckling mode increases with decreasing wall thickness. The strain concentration is also intensified for the diamond buckling modes compared with the elephant foot buckling modes.