Would this work?

[PreserveFreedom]

A while ago I found something online called a Nock Valley Gun. For those unfamiliar, Henry Nock made a gun for the British Military that had seven barrels, each was .50 cal. They were vented into each other so when you fired one you fired all. This was a flintlock and the recoil is said to be awful.

Since I read about this, I have been wondering how one could connect two or more barrels that would fire at the same time, just like Henry Nock did centuries ago.

Some of you have been building stuff since before I even had an interest in muzzleloading arms, so I figured I would ask...would my design work? To make things simple, I will just talk about joining two barrels for now. This will also keep my diagram simple. Assume they are octagon and of the same caliber. Whether or not they are rifled is not relevant.

The arrows are there for effect. In the finished product, all three pieces would be connected as one. There would be other means to hold the barrels together, such as dovetails and wedges or something. I am curious for now about the operation of the vent. I am thinking if the two barrels were connected, one could drill a hole in one side of one barrel and drill a smaller hole through the connecting wall of both barrels. A custom stainless steel vent liner could be threaded into the walls of both barrels, thus venting the barrels into each other. A larger liner (or drum if percussion ignition is desired) could then be threaded into the larger hole in the first barrel.

If you don't think this would work, what would work?

 

[Mike Brooks]

It will work. Probably don't need a vent liner between the barrels, just a hole would do.
Nock soldered his barrels together. In fact I think John Bosh just built a volley gun.

 

[ohio ramrod]

The only volley gun I have ever seen had the barrels joined by soldering and had a slightly tapered piece between the barrels to "spread" the balls or shot loads. It was mounted on a heavy swivel and was of a large caliber. It was not something you would want to be infront of. :idunno: :idunno: I wish the old mind could remember where I saw it. :nono: :nono:

 

[Stophel]

I think a big blunderbuss would be rather more practical. :grin:

 

[necchi]

Yeah, it might be fun to shoot multiple barrels at once. And it would have a wonderfull affect at the time it's fired.
But then you'd have to load multiple barrels.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Thank you all for your feedback. I was worried this thread would be frowned upon.

Yeah, it might be fun to shoot multiple barrels at once. And it would have a wonderfull affect at the time it's fired.
But then you'd have to load multiple barrels.

That is the reason the volley gun never caught on. It was determined that grapeshot in a cannon was more effective and could be reloaded much faster. The only real advantage of the volley gun is the portability. Personally, if defending from a stationary location, I would love to have it as the first shot before switching to something that reloads a bit faster.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I recall reading he designed them to be fired from the crow's nest high in the rigging of the ship down onto the deck of the opposing vessel. But the flames from the 7 barrels firing posed such a danger to the sails igniting ... that they never saw much use.

Aside from the recoil and practicality of it all.

 

[Stumpkiller]

If you've seen the 1960 movie "The Alamo" you've seen a Nock Volley Gun.

I'd hate to have to carry the beast and not sure I'd want to fire it. To be useful you'd need to be shooting at a mass of folks fairly close . . . and you won't kill them all and those you didn't have 10 minutes to kill you while you reload.

 

[bioprof]

Yeah, it might be fun to shoot multiple barrels at once. And it would have a wonderfull affect at the time it's fired.
But then you'd have to load multiple barrels.

You'd also have to clean multiple barrels. :shocked2:

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Yeah, it might be fun to shoot multiple barrels at once. And it would have a wonderfull affect at the time it's fired.
But then you'd have to load multiple barrels.

You'd also have to clean multiple barrels. :shocked2:

Only if you won that battle.