If you are a fan of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe novels — featuring the 95th Rifles in the Napoleonic Wars — you’ll recall that Sgt. Patrick Harper wields a multi-barreled Nock Volley Gun, originally deigned to be a deck-sweeper for the British Royal Navy. Richard Widmark’s Jim Bowie carries one in the 1960 movie The Alamo. It’s an outlandish piece, of limited utility.
Henry Nock built more conventional, but still astonishing, firearms. Take this beast sold through Rock Island Auction Co. last year.
Henry Nock was a highly regarded gunmaker active in London from 1772 until his death in 1804. He is best remembered today for his seven barreled volley guns which were adopted by the Royal Navy, but his skill and innovation as a gunmaker extended beyond his work for Board of Ordnance and the East India Company to encompass fine firearms for the civilian market. His Patent Breech of 1787 which detailed a separate hooked breech piece which was screwed into the breech end of a barrel was a considerable advancement in the development of the flintlock firearm, the present rifle being an early example dating from circa 1790-1800.
My guess is that such a rifle probably saw action in India. Maybe Africa. Big Medicine, but hard on the shooter.
Ethan from I Love Muzzleloading takes a detailed look:
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The Almighty Algorithm tells me I will like Captain Miller, a Tamil-language tale of rebels and revolutionaries during the 1930s British Raj. The movie certainly looks to deliver the action, with that edge of bat-shit crazy that Indian cinema indulges in. At least in the trailer, gunfire and stabbings are synched to the soundtrack. Or the other way ’round. Anyway… wild stuff.
Dig the caper:
During British India, when the anti-colonial freedom struggle is at its peak, Esan Aka Annalesan enlists in the British army to gain dignity. The story unfolds with Esan leading a mutiny against the British tyranny stemming from brazen massacre of Indians. As the most wanted person in the Presidency, he emerges to protect his settlement and clan from the British regiment’s bludgeon attacks.
The lead actor, Dhanush, is, by all accounts, a highly charismatic Big Deal. It is known that women go crazy for a Bren-wielding man…
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