Thomas Thornton’s 14-Barrel Flintlock Volley Gun

So you want a flintlock rifle, and you want more than one barrel. You also happen to have plenty of ye olde golde. What to do? Why, commission a 14-barreled rifle with two triggers, two locks, and two clusters of 7 rifled barrels of course.

The gun in question was more or less made as a symbolic piece, but it’s certain that this is a well-made arm which was fully capable of being fired.

It was made in London around 1800 for Lt. Col. Thomas Thornton, who apparently harbored some resentment for a concerted effort by fellow officers to have him drummed out of the military, which explains the gold-filled writing on the barrel proclaiming “Perdition to Conspirators.”

The fourteen 7-cornered polygonally-rifled twist steel barrels are roughly .30 caliber, and were probably intended to use non-round projectiles. Each trigger pull will fire 7 barrels.

This frightening assault flintlock has a vertical foregrip, which probably makes it illegal in some locations (derp).

When you’re as well-to-do as Thornton obviously was, you don’t load each barrel individually. Heavens no! Instead, you use your handy-dandy custom-made 7-chambered powder measure.

When he got tired of toting all 14 barrels about the countryside, he could slap one set of barrels into his second stock, which only holds one lock and one cluster of 7 barrels — and which is apparently of French manufacture.

I reckon Thornton was fond of the number 7.

Enjoy the video.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.