At the end of a shooting session with a sidelock I've always cleanedthe gun byremovingthe barrel, taking outthe nipple, stickingthe breech end in a container of water, and pumping the bore with a patched jag on the ramrod. Of course, this is pretty traditional and works great. But when I put a scope on my .45 GM LRH Renegade barrel I could no longer do that without surmerging the scope (it doesn't have detachable rings). So I recently made a Zerk fitting flush kit for it.

Now I know this is nothing newfor forum regulars, but I thought I would post it for any new guys who might not have seen it before.

I went to the local Ace hardware store and bought a long shank Zerk grease fitting with 1/4 x 28 threads, which is the thread size for the nipple inThompson Center guns. The fitting cost $1.05. I also bought six feet of 1/4"OD x .170"ID vinyl tubing at$0.15 a foot.

Here's what the Zerk fitting looks like.



I then used a 5/32" drill bit to drill out the core of the Zerk. I started at the base end and drilled through the plug that holds the spring in the fitting. After the plug was gone I removed the spring and the ball bearing from the core of the fitting, then continued drilling all the way through. Here's what it looks like after drilling.



Then I attached the vinly tubing, like this.



It's quite easy to screw the Zerk into the nipple seat. It doesn't have to be any more than finger tight.



Now I can remove the barrel from the gun, installthe Zerk Flush Kit, put the breech end of the barrel on a block of wood, stick the other end of the tube in a container of water, and flush away by pumpingwith the ramrod.