The cutting edge of gunmaking

Henry Nock was an innovative gunmaker from the Napoleonic era, whose legacy can be found in the sporting guns used today, says Robert Morgan

The name Henry Nock will be familiar to many readers, especially those with an interest in antique guns or muzzle-loading in general. We have looked at his pieces before in these pages, most notably the volley gun that carries his name, but the pistol pictured here is so rare I just had to share it with you all.

These pistols were a logical development of the aforementioned volley gun but instead of discharging all seven barrels at once, the firing was controlled by the user. On this example, the central barrel was discharged simultaneously with barrel number 1. Priming was achieved by filling the deep pan with powder, then rotating the barrel until each priming depression had been filled and turned out of battery within the (supposed!) gas-tight outer shield. The purpose of the sidemounted wing nut has not been fully explained but all existing examples have it, sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right-hand side. It is possibly for a belt attachment. What looks like rifling at the muzzles is in fact depressions for a square key, which allowed the user to unscrew each barrel from the breech for loading. This also meant the bore could be slightly tapered, creating much higher velocities than would normally be achievable in a short barrel. Practical? Probably not, although a pair of these would have given the owner the potential ability to down 12 opponents before the laborious process of reloading had to take place again. Intimidating? Certainly, though I doubt if the owner would have even had to discharge the pistol in most situations. Any self-respecting assailant faced with seven barrels would probably take stock.

Inventions

Henry Nock was a British inventor, gunsmith and engineer from the Napoleonic period. He could truly be called one of the greats of British gunmaking and produced many innovations in his lifetime, including an ingenious screwless lock and the seven-barrelled volley gun (although he did not actually invent the latter despite it being universally known as the “Nock gun”). He was a major supplier to the military during the Napoleonic War and his high quality duelling pistols and double-barrelled sporting guns were much sought after. It is largely through Nock that the latter became the weapon of choice for hunters.

As well as supplying the military and civilian markets, Nock made expensive pieces for royalty and the aristocracy and was one of the appointed gunmakers to George III. Nock’s business eventually became the renowned Wilkinson Sword, a company that went on to manufacture razor