Bowies rifle
While watching this movie a few weeks ago on TCM, I noticed that Bowie's rifle looked like a six shooter, with six barrels on it, if that is/was the case then why didn't it seem to be able to fire 6 times?? I'm just curious
shareFrom what I can remember once he pulled the trigger all 6 or 7 barrels shot out at once. That's how he killed 5 or 6 men with one shot.
shareI bel;ieve this has been discussed before, and as I recall the weapon was called the "Nock Volley Gun." It was a naval weapon, apparently meant to be used to repel boarders. I thought if they were going to give Bowie a naval gun, when Smitty exlaims, "Goshwow and golly-gee, Mr. B, that's one cool gun!" Bowie could have said, "Yep, my old pal Lafitte the pirate gave it to me as a gift when we were slave-smuggling partners! He also gave me Jethro."
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Since writing about this several years ago, I've become very interested in the volley gun. Anyone know if there was a later, percssion-model volley gun, or if the Nock could have been converted from flitlock to cap-and-ball? Thanks.
shareExcellent discussion and history of the Nock Valley in the DEC 2012 American Rifleman magazine; it was great in theory, but had major issues in the heat of battle.
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Sergeant Harper in the Sharpe novels and I guess the TV show has one of those things, too.
share...but had major issues in the heat of battle.It looked quite cool in the film and I suppose was seen to be an appropriate weapon for a frontier technocrat like Bowie, the originator of the famous knife that goes by his name. But in reality, I read somewhere the recoil was too great for one man to use successfully.
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