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oh yes, forgot. About weather proofing as percussion revolver. Front of the cylinder a mix of tallow and wax. Seals it and doesn't run out in hot weather (if it's hot enough some tallows, greases tend to flow out, then is loose seated balls, Bang! chainfire) Seat the caps, then on the sides of the cones/cone 'walls' seal with wax. Don't get any on the tops of the caps though...causes misfires.
And in general, the military flap holsters did a pretty good job of keeping the gun operable. Although a twist draw is a problem, especially with a heavy gun like a Dragoon. And in general, during this period little need to carry a pocket gun directly on the body, usually a waistcoat, coat etc was worn. That crowd generally wore more clothing than we do today...excluding of course, those times when the army campaigned in underwear.
But then in those circumstances, they didn't care if their weapon..or anything else was visable.
And as noted...at the time cartridges could be very hard to get..one pair of argonauts had all of 18 cartridges for a needle gun..so when confronted by the Cheyenne for trespassing etc, they had to try as much as to point their rifle and not shoot it. The Native Nations were generally even worse off for metallic cartridges, as such they seemed to have invented reloading. As stated, that's one reason the percussions stayed about so long. Best tool for the time and place.
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