When I returned to Rosengarden with fifty guns and five barrels of powder, the handler gave me detailed instruction on managing both. I already had a basic grasp of the concepts, which made everything easier to follow.
"So this powder is extremely vulnerable to moisture?"
"Yes, my lord. Dry storage is critical. And since each arkebuse is handmade, every gun has its own ball mold made to match. Lose that, and the gun becomes unusable."
"They're handmade, so the calibers must all differ slightly."
The bullets, made from comparatively easy-to-obtain lead, were poured by the gunner himself into a mold to produce balls of the right size. Bullets of a single standard size simply couldn't be used.
So loading the wrong ball into someone else's gun could clog the barrel and cause the firearm to explode. It was also vital to clear out powder residue before it caked hard.
Firearm maintenance was no small feat.
