[ Manton Waterproof Flintlock ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at RIA,
and I would like to give you a historical scenario.
So let's say you are a proper British aristocrat,
and the year is 1815.
You are very pleased, having heard the news
that your country's armed forces were able to
really show it to those uppity colonials,
and burn down their White House.
And you'd like to celebrate by going out with some fine bird hunting on your estate.
The problem is you're in England, and it's constantly raining, and it's 1815.
So what you have is a flintlock that doesn't perform so well when it gets wet.
How do you deal with that?
Well, there are a number of ways, there are techniques for waterproofing a flintlock.
But, let's say you're a proper aristocrat, you don't want to have to deal with
all that peasantry stuff, you just want a waterproof gun.
That is what we have here.
So let me show you what a waterproofed flintlock looks like.
This is certainly a very finely made double-barrelled flintlock shotgun.
... Check out some of that embellishment, that's really pretty darn cool.
This was made by one Joseph Manton, and on the top of the barrel rib here we have:
"Joseph Manton's New Improvements by His Majesty's Patent".
And the lock plates here are also marked Joseph Manton of London.
Now for the waterproofing there are a couple of things you have to do,
you have to deal with water that's coming, say, down ... the top of the barrels as you're holding the gun.
The centre rib provides a nice little trough to fill up with water.
And then you also have to deal with keeping water directly out of the pans.
So, the first thing that was done is there is basically a gutter system here
at the back of the barrels, these two openings are in fact completely open.
So the barrels come back here, and just have touch holes down there.
So ... you have a little powder charge that's in here,
and the shot column is in the barrel itself.
But you don't need the full diameter of the barrel where the powder is,
and so you can leave it open like this.
And those two slots open up into this as a drain hole.
So all the water that comes like sheeting down the barrel if you're holding it muzzle up,
or if you're holding it at an angle like this,
water that accumulates in here isn't going to end up down in the pan,
it's going to drain down these channels.
But you then also have the question of
what about water that does come down onto the pan here?
So what we have is another set of gutters built into the pan itself.
So if you look at this, any water that's going to come down here
is going to slide down this sheet, underneath the pan.
On the frizzen, the pan cover itself right there,
you have a nice tight fit up against the side wall of the barrel there.
And then the pan cover overlaps the top of the pan just enough
that any water that hits here is going to run down off the top, and drain down below the pans.
So it's basically geometry that is specifically designed to channel water away from those pans.
You could then of course certainly improve [it]. One extra layer of protection would be to add
something like a little bit of beeswax around the lip of the pan,
just to give it a little bit more sealing.
But this set of gutters does quite a lot to prevent water from
being in a position to get into your priming powder in the first place.
Now I do also want to point out these,
which are not specifically related to it being waterproof,
but they are another neat element of a high-end flintlock hunting rifle.
And that is a gravity-type safety.
So there are also sliding safeties that work this way.
But the idea is when you're getting ready to go
you drop the cock onto ... basically its half-cock notch locked on that safety stud.
So you ... load the barrel, charge the priming pan, close the cover to keep it protected from water.
And then you can have the hammer almost fully cocked,
but in this position ... this safety lock holds it in place, so it won't fire accidentally.
When you're ready to fire, all you have to do is just cock that back the slightest little bit,
and this lug on the front provides enough leverage to ensure that the safety drops
quickly and effectively down out of the way.
And so the gun's ready to fire.
That's generally called a stalking safety,
where it's something that is quickly and easily taken out of action
so that it doesn't interrupt a quick shot that you may have to make on an animal.
And of course it's got those on both sides there.
Well, hopefully you guys enjoyed the video, perhaps aside from the uppity colonials.
I think it's really interesting to take a look at technological solutions
to this sort of potential problem.
Now, of course, the ultimate solution to this issue would be the invention of the percussion cap.
Which, perhaps not coincidentally, was done in Scotland, which is perhaps even rainier than England.
And that provides a nice way to have a thoroughly waterproof gun.
But until that happened it was this sort of thing,
or a liberal application of beeswax and oiled leather action covers.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.