Shotgun

A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug.

A modern shotgun slug is a heavy projectile made of lead, copper, or other material and fired from a shotgun.

A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug.

These were the original projectiles for shotguns and are still fired primarily from shotguns and less commonly from riot guns and grenade launchers, although shot shells are available in many pistol calibers in a configuration called "bird shot", "rat-shot", or "snake shot".

A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug.

Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore shotguns) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability.

Shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5.5 mm (.22 inch) bore up to 5 cm bore, and in a range of firearm operating mechanisms, including breech loading, single-barreled, double or combination gun, pump-action, bolt-, and lever-action, revolver, semi-automatic, and even fully automatic variants.

These include some models of grenade launchers, shotguns, rifles and cannons, such as revolver cannon.

The military value of shotguns was rediscovered in the First World War, when American forces used 12-gauge pump action shotguns in close-quarters trench fighting to great effect.

The Winchester Model 1897, also known as the Model 97, M97, or Trench Gun, is a pump-action shotgun with an external hammer and tube magazine manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

The direct ancestor to the shotgun, the blunderbuss, was also used in a similar variety of roles from self-defense to riot control.

The blunderbuss is commonly considered to be an early predecessor of the modern shotgun, with similar military and defensive use.

Shotguns are also used for target shooting sports such as skeet, trap, and sporting clays.

Skeet shooting is a recreational and competitive activity where participants, using shotguns, attempt to break clay targets mechanically flung into the air from two fixed stations at high speed from a variety of angles.

Shotguns are also used for target shooting sports such as skeet, trap, and sporting clays.

Both general purpose shotguns and more specialized target-type shotguns are used in trapshooting, and may be double-barreled or single-barreled.

Shotguns come in a wide variety of forms, from very small up to massive punt guns, and in nearly every type of firearm operating mechanism.

A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations.

Shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5.5 mm (.22 inch) bore up to 5 cm bore, and in a range of firearm operating mechanisms, including breech loading, single-barreled, double or combination gun, pump-action, bolt-, and lever-action, revolver, semi-automatic, and even fully automatic variants.

Gauge is commonly used today in reference to shotguns, though historically it was also used in large double rifles, which were made in sizes up to 2 bore during their heyday in the 1880s, being originally loaded with black powder cartridges.

The shot is usually fired from a smoothbore barrel; another configuration is the rifled slug barrel, which fires more accurate solitary projectiles.

A slug barrel is a barrel for a shotgun that is designed primarily to fire slugs.

In the US, law enforcement agencies often use riot shotguns, especially for crowd and riot control where they may be loaded with less-lethal rounds such as rubber bullets or bean bags.

A riot shotgun is a shotgun designed or modified for use as a primarily defensive weapon, by the use of a short barrel and sometimes a larger magazine capacity than shotguns marketed for hunting.

In the US, law enforcement agencies often use riot shotguns, especially for crowd and riot control where they may be loaded with less-lethal rounds such as rubber bullets or bean bags.

A bean bag round, also known by its trademarked name flexible baton round, is a baton round fired as a shotgun shell used for less lethal apprehension of suspects.

A shotgun was originally a smoothbore firearm, which means that the inside of the barrel is not rifled but later rifled shotgun barrels and slugs become available.

A shotgun fires multiple, round shot; firing out of a rifled barrel would impart centrifugal forces that result a doughnut-shaped pattern of shot (with a high projectile density on the periphery, and a low projectile density in the interior).

Combat shotgun is a shotgun designed for offensive purposes, typically for the military.

A combat shotgun is a shotgun that is intended for use in an offensive role, typically by a military force.

The term cartridges is standard usage in the United Kingdom.

Plastic cases are commonly used in shotgun shells and some manufacturers offer polymer centerfire cartridges.

A sawed-off shotgun (or "sawn-off") refers to a shotgun whose barrel has been shortened, leaving it more maneuverable, easier to use at short range and more readily concealed.

A sawed-off shotgun also called a sawn-off shotgun and a short-barreled shotgun, is a type of shotgun with a shorter gun barrel—typically under 18 inches—and often a shortened or absent stock.

The direct ancestor to the shotgun, the blunderbuss, was also used in a similar variety of roles from self-defense to riot control.

The base choice is between lethal (e.g. 12 gauge shotgun) and less-than-lethal weaponry (e.g. tear gas, pepper spray, plastic bullets, tasers, batons, and other incapacitants).

Ammunition for shotguns is referred to in the USA as shotgun shells, shotshells, or just shells (when it is not likely to be confused with artillery shells).

Coach guns are similar to sawn-off shotguns, except they are manufactured with a 46 cm (18") barrel and are legal for civilian ownership in some jurisdictions. Coach guns are also more commonly associated with the American Old West or Australian Colonial period, and often used for hunting in bush, scrub, or marshland where a longer barrel would be unwieldy or impractical.

These weapons were known as "cut-down shotguns" or "messenger's guns" from the use of such shotguns on stagecoaches by shotgun messengers in the American Wild West.

The double-barreled shotgun has changed little since the development of the boxlock action in 1875.

A double-barreled shotgun is a shotgun with two parallel barrels, allowing two shots to be fired in quick succession.

As wing shooting has been a prestige sport, specialty gunsmiths such as Krieghoff or Perazzi have produced fancy double-barrel guns for wealthy European and American hunters.

Perazzi is a manufacturer of precision shotguns from Brescia, Italy.

A rifled slug, with finned rifling designed to enable the projectile to be safely fired through a choked barrel, is an example of a single projectile.

The term is occasionally applied to bullets (just the projectile, never the cartridge as a whole), but is most commonly applied to one-piece shotgun projectiles, to differentiate them from shotshells containing shots.

Snake Charmer shotguns are commonly used by gardeners and farmers for pest control.

The Snake Charmer is a .410 bore, stainless steel, single shot, break-action shotgun, with an exposed hammer, an 18 1/8 inch barrel, black molded plastic furniture and a short thumb-hole butt-stock that holds four additional 2 1/2 shotgun shells.

These involve shooting clay disks, known as clay pigeons, thrown in various ways.

All three sports use a shotgun, and in the sporting disciplines are sub-classified by the type of game the clay target represents (pigeon, rabbit, etc.).