Also known as a Volley Gun. There was one on display at the NRA Convention last weekend that has attracted much attention.
We’ve been seeing photos of this gun popping up all over the place. It’s a cool gun. It fires all seven barrels at the same time. Like a shotgun, but more effective since each Ball was fired at much higher velocity than the shotguns of the time. You can read some more about this gun here.
Many have said that these guns would be cumbersome.
That is not so.
The Nock Gun was fairly short. And while not a light weight, was certainly not too heavy to be cumbersome.
The series of films “Sharpe’s Rifles” feature a Sargent that uses one to good and dramatic effect, dropping several foes in one grand blast.
You can watch the movies here… There are 14 films, Rifles is the fist.
Just note that the volley gun isn’t in the first film.
I was at the NRA convention in Indianapolis, and the volley
gun on display looked much larger in girth than the guns in the pictures from the movie, I wear extra large gloves and I am sure that I could not have wrapped my hand more than half way around the barrels. Were the movie picture guns just props?
No, it was probably just a smaller version of the same thing. It was said to fire Pistol Balls, where the one at the NRA looked to be firing full Rifle Balls… So that would make the difference.
They’ve got one at the J.M. Davis Gun Museum in Claremore, OK; interesting thing. Read about it in the Sharp novels before saw it.
Originally developed for the Brit Navy, idea was Marines in the lines could use it to sweep the enemy deck. Problems were slow reloading and reportedly horrendous recoil.