It's weakness was in loading, as the guns had to be reloaded outside of the hull, exposing members of the crew to enemy fire. The dream of a many barrelled gun came around again during the Vietnam era with an armored vehicle called the Ontos, an armored platform sporting 6 106mm recoiless rifles. I got a kick out of this video from Youtube. You can buy a reproduction of the Nock Gun from a couple of places, one being The Rifle Shoppe.
HOT SHOT VOLLEY GUN TV
The Nock Gun was made popular by the British TV drama about the Napoleonic Wars called Sharpe's Rifles, making it's appearance in this episode of Sharpe's Company. Lastly, the recoil was a lot worse than first thought by the inventor, and many a sailor sported a broken shoulder after serious use of the Nock gun. Loading under battle conditions was time consuming, and to ease this, the rifling was superceded by smoothbore barrels, as pinpoint accuracy wasn't the point of this gun anyway. Named for the manufacturer, the Nock Volley gun proved to be a disappointment and a hindrance to the firer.īeing a flintlock weapon, ignition was always a problem, and at times not all the barrels would discharge successfully. It was thought that the devastating blast of 7 barrels would clear groups of the enemy that were naturally packed together on the fighting decks of warships. During the Napoleonic Wars, an enterprising Englishman, James Wilson, designed a 7 barrel rifle to enhance the firepower of sailors in hand to hand fighting while boarding ships at sea.