I believe the gun is a percussion-fired musket. Since there is no frizzen its unlikely to be a flint lock. I also dont believe it uses metal cartridges since the metallurgy just isn't there to be able to draw copper or brass the way you would need to in order to make cartridges out of it. You need both the knowledge AND the infrastructure in order for that to be feasible, and its not likely that sufficient advancement in the infrastructure has been completed this quickly.
Percussion caps can potentially be made with just the chemical knowledge, however, so that's my best bet. The musket might also be rifled, but that depends on what Shizuko thinks is more important. Yes, the rifling will increase accuracy and, as a result, range a good bit. However its not without drawbacks. The rifling fouls pretty quickly by black powder and the rifle is slower and harder to load as a result. The Minié ball was invented partly to combat this, and since it's a pretty simple matter of casting a lead bullet in a particular shape, it's possible Shizuko has made this advance too. Im leaning towards it being a rifled musket.
I don't think she has made the advance to smokeless powder, since the iron japan is able to produce at this point in history couldn't safely handle the increased pressure of the modern powder. (Again its a question of the metallurgical process and facilities.) It would mean pretty regular and catastrophic, quite often lethal, explosive misfires. And we know Shizuko is all about reducing unnecessary suffering and death, I don't think she will introduce smokeless powder before they have the ability to make better steel.
Well thats my two cents anyway.
Percussion caps can potentially be made with just the chemical knowledge, however, so that's my best bet. The musket might also be rifled, but that depends on what Shizuko thinks is more important. Yes, the rifling will increase accuracy and, as a result, range a good bit. However its not without drawbacks. The rifling fouls pretty quickly by black powder and the rifle is slower and harder to load as a result. The Minié ball was invented partly to combat this, and since it's a pretty simple matter of casting a lead bullet in a particular shape, it's possible Shizuko has made this advance too. Im leaning towards it being a rifled musket.
I don't think she has made the advance to smokeless powder, since the iron japan is able to produce at this point in history couldn't safely handle the increased pressure of the modern powder. (Again its a question of the metallurgical process and facilities.) It would mean pretty regular and catastrophic, quite often lethal, explosive misfires. And we know Shizuko is all about reducing unnecessary suffering and death, I don't think she will introduce smokeless powder before they have the ability to make better steel.
Well thats my two cents anyway.