Firearms trivia question Friday April 24

[Float Pilot]

OK Lets see if this photo works.

What is this firearm and how does it work?

[ADfields]

Revolving flint lock musket. Load all the barrels and all you need to do is index the next barrel and prime the flash pan. A friend of mine made a copy and it was way to heave, but still fun to play with.

[Float Pilot]

Revolving flint lock musket.

Nope. But it sure looks like it.

[ADfields]

I humbly aweigh enlightenment!

[Float Pilot]

They stopped making them around 1805. Two models were made.

[jguy.357]

Is it a "4 bore" muzzleloader that fires all four at once?

[alaskan winmag]

Is it Nock's volley gun (or a Nock Gun I think they might have been called)? I can't quite tell how many barrels it has, it looks like 7 but I am not quite sure.

[ADfields]

Is it a "4 bore" muzzleloader that fires all four at once?

It looks like it has 6 and a ram rod to me.

[FLtoAK05]

Nock's Volley Gun

Nock's Volley gun - 7 barrels brazed together with the outer 6 having their breeches plugged. The central barrel screwed on to a hollow spigot which formed the chamber and was connected to the vent. This chamber fired through smaller vents to ignite the charges in the outer barrels. At first, the barrels were all rifled but this led to loading difficulties and most were later made smooth bored. This improved the rate of fire but reduced range and accuracy.

The gun was made by James Wilson 1779 and named after Nock. Nock was contracted to manufacture the gun and 635 examples were sold to the Royal Navy. A flintlock mechanism fired through a vent that led to the central chamber. Firing cause dignition in the central chamber and resulting flash passed through and ignited the other 6 so all 7 fired more or less simultaneously. The gun was intended for the fighting tops of warships to fire down on the deck of the enemy vessel as it closed alongside. However recoil was so strong and the weapon so difficult to control that a smaller lighter version had to be produced. This made it shorter ranging but still effective as Admiral Howe's fleet showed in relief of Gibraltar in 1782. Nevertheless, it was still unpopular because of the danger of a ship's sails and rigging catching fire from the muzzle blast.

Overall length 37in, barrel length 20in, calibre 0.52in.

BG

[Float Pilot]

Is it Nock's volley gun (or a Nock Gun I think they might have been called)? I can't quite tell how many barrels it has, it looks like 7 but I am not quite sure.

YES WE HAVE AN EARLY WINNER

Nock's Volley gun -SEVEN, 52 caliber barrels brazed together with the outer 6 having their breeches plugged. The central barrel screwed on to a hollow spigot which formed the chamber and was connected to the flash vent.

This central chamber fired through smaller vents to ignite the charges in all the outer barrels at one time.

At first, the barrels were all rifled but this led to slow loading and more recoil.

Most were made smooth bored.
Although a Swan or Goose gun with all rifled barrels was made for hunting purposes for several years.

Nock was contracted to manufacture the gun and 635 examples of the first model were sold to the Royal Navy.
The flintlock mechanism fired through a vent that led to the central chamber. Firing cause dignition in the central chamber and resulting flash passed through and ignited the other 6 so all 7 fired more or less simultaneously.

The gun was intended for the fighting tops of warships to fire down on the deck of the enemy vessel as it closed alongside.

However recoil was so strong and the weapon so difficult to control that a smaller lighter version had to be produced.

Nevertheless, it was still unpopular because of the danger of a ship's sails and rigging catching fire from the muzzle blast.


1772: Henry Nock sets up gun maker's workshop in London.
1779 Nock starts to produce the first model volley gun.
1804: Nock becomes royal gun maker to King George III; James Wilkinson, Nock's son-in-law, takes over business after Nock's death; begins production of bayonets.
1824: Henry Wilkinson, James' son, takes over business and begins developing stronger blade production techniques.

[strangerinastrangeland]

DANG!!!

two days of "mystery to me modern guns" and Im gone two hours getting the kid stitches, and I missed this...Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh.......

Cant wait for tomarrow....we do this on week ends, done we?

Thanks, this is cool, when ever you have the time

[Float Pilot]

Just think about all seven barrels loaded with BUCK and BALL or Buck shot. It would be like seven black powder 20 gauges all going off at once.


This rifle was used in THE ALAMO (The real one wth John Wayne) and also appeared more than a few times in the Sharpe's Rifle series.

I think they used a repro of the second model in Sharpe's Rifles since it seems a little smaller.