Nock Volley Gun

[Flint62Smoothie]

I think I read that one of the reasons it was never popular with the Navy was the recoil.

Actually ... more so that it had the nasty tendency to set the rigging on fire!

 

[Artificer]

Just finished up this Rifle Shoppe Nock Volley Gun kit for a friend. Not something you see everyday. Has seven 20" 50 cal smoothbore barrels that fire at the same time. Weighs in at 14 lbs. 3 oz.

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NICE gun!

Can't remember, but weren't the originals something like .32 or .36 caliber? Or was it .42 cal.?

Gus

 

[LT Joe]

I recently acquired one of these Nock Volley guns that was probably built by Jess Melot. Plan to shot it soon but I would really like someone who has one of these to tell me the best way to clean it. I don't see how it would be possible to clean the touch holes connected to the center barrel. If someone has some thoughts on how to clean this unique gun I would really appreciate hearing about it! Thanks!

-- Joe

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Loading it would take some thought to make sure each barrel only got one load. And I thought a double was tricky if you didn't pay attention.

Simple! Use paper cartridges, which is what they did, pour powdah in one barrel and stuff the ball and paper in, but leaving it at the muzzle. Then ram them all down when all barrels are loaded.

Can't remember, but weren't the originals something like .32 or .36 caliber? Or was it .42 cal.?

The original originals were 52-cal (IIRC) rifles, but the recoil (alleged to dislocate shoulders) was even worse and the reloading, especially when up in the foretops, was significantly slower.

If someone has some thoughts on how to clean this unique gun I would really appreciate hearing about it!

Again ... simple ... NOT! Just darn laborious for sure!

Rough Cleanings:

• Remove the lock and plug the breech touch hole with a well-fitting toothpick
• Pour water into all the barrels, let sit, dump out
• Repeat
• Brush each barrel and use a breech scraper
• Repeat the fill & flush as needed

Intermediate Cleaning:

• Swab out the center barrel, but without pouring water into it
• Mark 1 outside barrel with blue tape
• When the center barrel is reasonably clean, place action over a sink (make a jig, butt slightly down, with the 1st barrel to be cleaned on the bottom, or @ 6 o'clock) and do not put a toothpick into the breech touch hole again
• Swab each barrel like the center barrel
• Pour water into the 1st tape-marked barrel, well above the TH of that hole to the center barrel
• Immediately plunge a wet/well fitting jag into the 1st tape-marked barrel, so that - like a piston - will force water into the enter the center barrel - this will clean your TH from that outside barrel to the center barrel
• KEY: Might be BEST to only give it a little squirt at a time, so all the bad water from that barrel goes into the center barrel only so you may need to let the center barrel fully drain before rinsing the breech/TH area of that barrel again
• Move around from barrel to barrel - you're pick - in clockwise or counter-clockwise manner, placing the next outside barrel to be cleaned on the bottom in the jig ... as water less likely to travel UP into the other barrels, capice?
• When all done, leave muzzle down to dry

Final Cleaning:

• Per your normal regimen, just not 'wet' to crappola from a direty barrel migrates to any other cleaned barrel
• I bet this would be a MULTI-DAY affair of swaing/checking to make sure eah barrel is clean and stored with a good protectant (Birchwood Casey's 'Barricade' or WD-40's Corrosion Specialist product [rated #1 out of all protectants in some tests of 40+ products!])

Option: And after writing ALL of that ... this just came to be and might be the BEST approach evah!

• Remove the wood stock and clean in a huge/tall bucket!

Summary:

Although Jesse Merlot from TRS says that the barrel stack set is torqued onto the breech block @ 70 Foot-Pounds, on my kit I may come up with a way to secure the barrel set in place, but yet allow it to be rotated OFF for easier cleaning ..

 

[LT Joe]

Many thanks Dale! But it sounds like the best solution to cleaning a Nock Volley Gun is to never fire it in the first place!! LOL

 

[russellshaffer]

When it fires does it go with a single big bang or kind of a ragged roar? And there is the possibility of one or more barrels misfiring. I would check each barrel to make sure they were empty before reloading. Fun, though.

 

[Eterry]

I saw parts for one when I visited TRS a while back.
Maybe as the cavalry had lighter charges for their carbines, so to would the Nock. 14 lbs is about the weight of a .577 NE Double, but I can't imagine shouldering it and having it double. That's 1500 grains @ 2000 fps.
The Nock would expell 1190 grains, hopefully at 1500 fps, somewhat more manageable.

 

[wganz]

Interesting & cool to watch being fired.
not so much pulling the trigger myself.

 

[tenngun]

That'll clear the deck in an instant won't it?

Very cool looking and it would certainly draw a lot of eyes when set off at the range.

Seems it should have a wall mount, I wouldn't want to shoulder fire that thing.

That will clear the deck in an instant…. Hmmm
I often wondered about the gun. In smoothbore it would have a bit of spread but how much?
The biggest ships were two hundred feet long and fifty feet wide. Most ships were half that.
A hundred feet is thirty yards, two hundred sixty. Fifty feet is seventeen yards. How much of a spread could you get in that range. Three feet?
Would this be more deadly then a musket with buck and ball? Make uglier wounds but you can’t get deader than dead.
Shot in to rigging a .50 won’t cut a line unless it hits just right, most lines on a ship were over an inch.
A physiological gun. Seeing that pointed at you would get your attention, maybe stop a man who would be willing to charge a musket
And seeing a body torn by a half dozen ,50 ball all at once may take the fire out of an assault
From any range like across two ships closing on one another even the ‘light’ sides of a merchant ship or costal trader will stop a ,50 ball.
I just have often wondered how they were used and how effective they could be.
That said owning one would be a lot of fun.

 

[Cayman like]

Just finished up this Rifle Shoppe Nock Volley Gun kit for a friend. Not something you see everyday. Has seven 20" 50 cal smoothbore barrels that fire at the same time. Weighs in at 14 lbs. 3 oz.

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Nice, my Rifle Shop catalog I think said one of theirs was loaded with 40 grains in each barrel and 'tetched ' it off and they felt it! Maybe the sailor assigned one was required to be stout like Grenadines had to be tall.

 

[Commodore Swab]

Fun guns, I built one years ago and have another about 70% done. A while back I came across a photo of a double nock. Perhaps it was used for hunting? The picture appeared to be from a museum but I have no other info on it. Has anyone else come across a double (14 barrels) nock?

 

[Johnny Too-Tall]

My luck the gun would go off like a popcorn machine pop, pop, pop. It is something cool though and im jealous and want one

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

Just finished up this Rifle Shoppe Nock Volley Gun kit for a friend. Not something you see everyday. Has seven 20" 50 cal smoothbore barrels that fire at the same time. Weighs in at 14 lbs. 3 oz.

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Really, really nice. GREAT JOB!

 

[loflyr55]

I think I read that one of the reasons it was never popular with the Navy was the recoil.

Rick

Has anyone ever made a test comparison between the recoil of a volley gun and another combat Weapon like the brown Bess?

 

[Rebel bull]

definitely fits the definition of assault weapon ?

 

[Wncman]

I recently acquired one of these Nock Volley guns that was probably built by Jess Melot. Plan to shot it soon but I would really like someone who has one of these to tell me the best way to clean it. I don't see how it would be possible to clean the touch holes connected to the center barrel. If someone has some thoughts on how to clean this unique gun I would really appreciate hearing about it! Thanks!

-- Joe

Go to Shooting USA on YouTube And search “Shooting the Knock Volley Gun.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

A while back I came across a photo of a double nock. Perhaps it was used for hunting? The picture appeared to be from a museum but I have no other info on it. Has anyone else come across a double (14 barrels) nock?

Here you go! From the Forgotten Weapons YouTube channel ...

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Hmmm ... I often wondered about the gun. In smoothbore it would have a bit of spread but how much?

Remember the intent ... to kill the Officers on an opposing ship! Recall that even Lord Admiral Neslon (who ironically banned NVGs on his ships in 1804, IIRC) was killed by a French sharpshooter up in the topsails (pronunced 'topsills') crow's nest on the French ship. They used a 54" long barrel Fusil de Boucanier, as that gave longer range.

Garry James, the noted old fore lock collector and shooter and writer for Guns&Ammo magazine did a test and I think the yardage was 50 to 60 yards, but all RBs hit the "man sized" target. His video of that test is online and he equated as equal to 7 guys shooting at someone!!!! Albeit also recognize that the charge per barrel in a NVG is much lower, maybe half that of a small caliber rifle (yes, I know they predominently used muskets aboard ships back then ... ).

 

[tenngun]

I would point out Nelson was pretty close. The ships were at ‘pistol shot’ say twentyfive yards. So close wads from cannon were starting fires. The Buccanter had closed her lower gunports due to fire risk from Victory.
The kill shot came from the mixzen ‘ crows nest’ ie mast top. About sixty feet high. So range was well less then thirty yards or forty at the most.
Bucanator was a ‘two decker’ mounting eighty guns. Victory’s quarterdeck was about twelve feet higher then Bucanators and that brought and that brought the height of the muzzle top down
I would well expect a volley gun would have just hit one man.
Nelson was encouraged to stay under the poop. But he felt it was more important to be seen by the men suffering the same danger

 

[Commodore Swab]

Here you go! From the Forgotten Weapons YouTube channel ...

Awesome, that's the piece I was thinking about. Thanks