Volley pistols were similar to multi barrelled pistols but worked differently. Where the multi barrelled pistol was designed to fire one shot at a time, the volley pistol was designed to fire several barrels all at once. The idea was to spread out the shots in a pattern so many barrels would be attached to the same lock but at different angles on the same plain of fire. When the trigger was pulled all the barrels would fire at once. Volley pistols often had four or five barrels. They were probably only effective at very close range and were difficult to fire and load. Often more than one ball was loaded per barrel to increase wounding abilitie.
While Volley pistols were somewhat rare it is said they were some times used by captains of ship for putting down mutinies.
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