Volley gun

A Double-Barrel Pistol with twin barrels atop one another

A volley gun is a firearm with more than one barrel, where the barrels are designed to be either fired in succession or simultaneously. Two common variants are the pepperbox pistol and the duckfoot pistol, representing the former and latter firing patterns respectively. Guns of this type constituted an early attempt at designing firearms for multiple discharges without reloading and predated the development of repeaters.

Description

Prior to the 19th century, conventional firearms could only fire one round before needing to be reloaded. The vast majority of these firearms operated via the flintlock mechanism which required a lengthy procedure of priming the weapon and ramming down the powder, wadding, and shot to reload. This severely impeded the rate-of-fire of early firearms, especially when compared to the more ancient and simpler bow.

The six-barrel pistol of the French Assassin Arno Dorian

Gunsmiths of the 18th century sought ways to rectify this issue, and the most obvious solution with the technology they had was to simply incorporate additional barrels onto firearms, resulting in the invention of the volley gun. Volley guns are guns, most often pistols, which are designed with more than one barrel so that its wielder may fire more than one shot before having to reload the weapon. They come in two variants: those which fire the barrels in succession and those which fire the barrels simultaneously with one trigger-pull.

Initial designs of the former led to the Double-Barrel Pistol, but ambitious gunsmiths continued to create guns with increasing number of barrels, culminating in the popular pepperbox pistols. The Gold-Plated Pistol, an example of a pepperbox pistol, boasted as many as nine barrels.

Volley guns which fire all barrels simultaneously came to be known as duckfoot pistols, for their conspicuous and overbearing barrels gave it a profile not unlike that of the webbed feet of ducks. These barrels spread out at different angles, thereby producing a scatter shot effect when fired, and in this respect, duckfoot pistols were precursors of the shotgun.

History

The first volley gun was created during the Middle Ages in the form of the ribauldequin, which was employed by the English during the Hundred Years' War. Although more multi-barrel weapons were developed in the following centuries, they were rarely ever used, as they were relatively expensive and, in practice, were not much more useful than a regular cannon firing grapeshot.

Three of Yun's volley guns

In 1725, while working for the Zhang Wei Union, Yun Pyeong-Gyu built several volley guns, referred to as either "multi-barreled muskets" or "five-barreled cannons", consisting of five gun barrels attached to a cart. As they were capable of firing up to five times before requiring reloading, and could even be used during extreme weather conditions, such as storms, when most firearms were rendered useless due to the wet gunpowder, these volley guns ended up saving the Fenghuang's crew lives when they were ambushed by Rajah's warriors on Monkey Island. Later, the weapons were used again in a fight against the Qing Empire's Rattan Shield Company, bombarding the soldiers with a volley of cannonfire, although most of them survived thanks to their shields and armor.

Hand-sized volley guns became common in markets across Europe and its colonies in the Americas after the Seven Years' War. The basic Pepperbox Pistols and Double-Barreled Pistols were a mainstay of stores in New Orleans from at least 1765 to the end of the century. Duckfoot pistols arrived in the general stores of British colonial cities like Boston and New York in 1773 and double-barrel pistols in 1777 during the American Revolution. By the time of the French Revolution, many variants of pepperbox and duckfoot pistols were produced and sold in Parisian markets.

Eventually, firearm technology advanced and rendered volley guns obsolete. By the latter half of the 19th century, self-reloading firearms which can automatically chamber new cartridges with each trigger-pull had been invented. These took the form of revolvers and other semi-automatic guns.

Weapon statistics

Colonial Louisiana

Name	Magazine	Short range damage	Long range damage	Cost	Persona
Double-Barreled Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Double-Barreled Pistol"}}
Pepperbox Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Pepperbox Pistol"}}

American Revolution

Name	Rate of fire	Short range	Long range	Cost	Availability
Duckfoot Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Duckfoot Pistol"}}
Double-Barrel Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Double-Barrel Pistol"}}
French Coat Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"French Coat Pistol"}}
Royal Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Royal Pistol"}}
Naval Duckfoot {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Naval Duckfoot"}}

French Revolution

Name	Level	Damage	Parry	Speed	Range	Clip Size	Cost	Modifiers	Requirements
Officer's Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Officer's Pistol"}}
Over Under Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Over Under Pistol"}}
American Flintlock {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"American Flintlock"}}
Pepper Shot {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Pepper Shot"}}
Arno's Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Arno's Pistol"}}
Three-Shot Duck Foot {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Three-Shot Duck Foot"}}
Gold-Plated Pistol {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Gold-Plated Pistol"}}
Five-Shot Duck Foot {{#section:AC:CST/Weapons|"Five-Shot Duck Foot"}}

Gallery

• 
  A Pepperbox Pistol
• 
  A four-barreled Duckfoot Pistol
• 
  A Double-Barrel Pistol
• 
  A four-barreled American Flintlock
• 
  A three-barreled Duckfoot Pistol
• 
  A five-barreled Duckfoot Pistol

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed III
• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
• Assassin's Creed: Unity
• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple