POTD: Manufrance Seven-Shot Volley Rifle – Seven Barrels, One Pull
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a rifle built for a job that doesn’t exist anymore. This is a Manufrance seven-barrel volley gun in 30 rimfire, made in St. Étienne, France, sometime in the 1880s or 1890s for the professional hunting market.
The idea was simple and a little brutal. Seven rifled barrels are bundled into a cluster just over 1 1/4 inches across, all running off one big rolling block action worked by a lever. A removable round carrier holds seven cartridges and doubles as the breech face. Cock the hammer, pull the trigger, and one large firing pin hits all seven rimfire rounds at once, sending out a fairly tight volley of seven bullets.
Market hunters used guns like this on waterfowl, which is why they picked up the name goose guns. The other option for serious volume at range was the big punt gun. A volley gun gave you the swarm of a shotgun with the reach of a rifle, since every projectile is a real rifled bullet instead of shot. I personally imagine the report was something else.
Most of the ones you’ll see were made by the Belgian firm of Henri Pieper, which built them in 22 and 32 rimfire on an underlever Remington-style rolling block. A French example from Manufrance is the scarcer find. Long story short, this was the commercial hunter’s answer to bringing home more birds per shot, and it’s a strange corner of sporting arms history that I’m glad survived.
Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!
“Scarce French Manufrance Rolling Block Seven-Shot Volley Rifle.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/1398/scarce-french-manufrance-rolling-block-sevenshot-volley-rifle. Accessed 29 Sept. 2026.
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