[The] J.G. Dachtine 16 gauge flintlock gun with a simple solution – its entire lock is hidden under a hinged cover. To open the cover for loading the priming charge and cocking the hammer, the shooter must press the button on the right side of the receiver, and then snap the cover closed to waterproof the action.
I’m honestly surprised that this wasn’t more common. From my first impressions, it seems like it would have a lot of advantages over the conventional flintlock
I don’t know. This isn’t my field, but I can see about a dozen points of failure once you factor in both design tolerances based on period of manufacture, and performance in ice/wind/dust/mud - all of which brought havoc upon even crossbows, much less muskets.
To be clear, I absolutely agree with you. It just never works out that way.
I believe there’s a few tricks people use/used to prevent normal flintlocks from having reliability issues in the rain, such as using fabric covers. I think it’s just a lot of work, at this time this is all by hand mind you, that will only be of benefit if it is raining for a design like this.
But this example is clearly something made for someone of means, given the engravings.
