[Mac Sidewinder]

My son and I were shooting some reloads of mine yesterday and I stuck one in the barrel of my Ruger GP100. I have been using this load for quite a while now without any problems and I'm not sure if it was a light drop from my Lee Pre Auto Disk powder measure or what. Here is the load I am using:

Berry's Plated 148gr HBWC .38 cal
Bullseye @ 3.0gr
OAL 1.200 (seated almost flush)
CCI 500 primers

I had to use a brass cleaning rod to remove the bullet - It stuck about 1/3 of the way down the barrel and was stuck so bad that it came out in pieces. It took alot of blows with a hammer to remove. There is still some copper plating stuck on one wall that kind of looks like a quarter moon. I can pass a cleaning brush through the barrel and I have tried to clean it to no avail.

I have two questions:

1. This must have been a squib since if it was too hot then I would think that it would have blew off the skirting off the bullet and left it in the barrel instead of the whole bullet. If it was a squib how come the copper plating fused to the inside of the barrel making it so difficult to remove.?

2. What is a good copper cleaner/disolver that you can use that is safe for the barrel? I heard that a product called KG-12 Big Bore Cleaning Solvent was good for this.

I don't have a chrono to see how fast I am pushing these bullets but Berry's site says you need to push them at least 800fps and less than 1200. I ordered a chrono tonight - its the Shooting Chrony 7000129 Beta Master Chronograph, Blue.

Thanks for the help

Mac