My friend, new to reloading, has started reloading .243 Win for his Browning BAR. As I was picking up his brass from our last shooting session, I noticed that one case (of 100 or so, Rem or Win) was split lengthwise from just above the case web, to just below the shoulder. Since anecdotcal evidence indicates that 243 is a little more prone to blowing up guns than other cartridges, is one split case in 100 an indicator of dangerous loads?

My friend has no concept of load development. He just set up his press and loaded 500 bullets into 500 cases using Speer #12 max load for Varget, and set COL to the manual specs, ignoring the fact that the bullets he was loading were not Speer.

Do I need to tell him to throttle back?

Iwouldn't worry about the one case as much as the others......one case with a lengthwise split as you describe could be a bad case or random hard brass...the others in the group need to be examined for splits,primer appearance isn't a reliable indicator of excess pressure but it still can be a indicator...the case you have may have been one that got loaded more than the others...the auto action is more springy than some and the brass expands and gets resized back more than necessary and this will let the brass split early esp. if the die overworks the brass or the chamber is on the large size of specs.....check the expansion above the web with a good mic on a fired factory load and then the reloads expanision and see if it is similar......every gun is a one of a kind combo and each has its own ceiling of safe loads.....the bullet brand difference can make a difference in pressure if the construction-design is different but the load data can be used as a guide......HTH..good luck and good shooting!!

The Duh-merican: I too would not be too concerned about 1 case out of a hundred splitting. What I am concerned about is your friend's approach to reloading - just about every source of reloading information will tell you not to start out with maximum loads, but to cut the maximum by at least 10% and slowly work up from there. This is especially true when one is transferring data from one bullet manufacturer to another. As Bigdaddytacp has pointed out, the other cases should be examined carefully - and this is true whether none, one or twenty of the cases split, as this is something that should be done after shooting any reload. I hope that your friend doesn't hurt himself or anyone else before the concept of load development sinks in.

A lengthwise split is not an indicator of pressure, but rather an indicator of a problem with the brass.

Loading manuals are somewhat conservative, usually leaving a safety margin above even their "maximum" loads. That said, however, there are individual rifles which will run excessive (unsafe) pressures with less than "maximum" published loads, particularly with component substitutions.

If your friend's 500 rounds of .243 work reasonably well in his BAR, he is fortunate, this time. Hope that he is satisfied with these loads and doesn't try the same non-technique with another load/gun.