As readers will well know, you cannot guarantee the weather will be benign when out on a shoot. Modern sporting guns can easily deal with such inclement weather but for the flintlock of the 18th and 19th century it was a different story. The biggest drawback was having to use loose priming powder; priming powder could easily get damp and not work, or be blown away by a gust of wind as you are about to shoot. Solutions to this dilemma were eagerly sought and several innovative designs were offered by the gunmaker.
One of the solutions for weatherproofing was to enclose the mechanism, either inside the gun or by providing some sort of cover. In the collections of the Royal Armouries are examples of both, but this article is about the latter technique.
This story is from the May 2021 edition of The Field.
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This story is from the May 2021 edition of The Field.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
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