shotgun
Sign in to savethumb|right|300px|A Pump-action shotgun|pump-action [[Remington 870, two semi-automatic Remington 1100 shotguns, 20 boxes of shotgun shells, a clay trap, and three boxes of clay pigeons]]
AI overview
A shotgun is a firearm that fires multiple pellets (called shot) in a spread pattern, rather than a single bullet, making it effective at closer ranges. Shotguns are commonly used for hunting, sport shooting (like clay pigeon shooting), and self-defense, and they come in different action types such as pump-action and semi-automatic designs.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
39 sectionsContents
- History
- 19th century
- Hammerless shotguns
- John Moses Browning
- World wars
- Late 20th century to present
- Design factors
- Action
- Break-action
- Pump-action
- Lever-action
- Bolt-action
- Revolver
- Semi-automatic
- Automatic
- Other
- Shot
- Barrel length
- Caliber conversion sleeves
- Ammunition
- Specialty ammunition
- Hunting, defensive, and military
- Less-lethal rounds, for riot and animal control
- Novelty and other
- Uses
- Sporting
- Hunting
- Industrial
- Law enforcement
- Military
- Home and personal defense
- Legal issues
- Australia
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- United States
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|right|300px|A Pump-action shotgun|pump-action [[Remington 870, two semi-automatic Remington 1100 shotguns, 20 boxes of shotgun shells, a clay trap, and three boxes of clay pigeons]]
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small spherical projectiles called shot, or a single solid projectile called a slug. Shotguns are most commonly used as smoothbore firearms, meaning that their gun barrels have no rifling on the inner wall, but rifled barrels for shooting sabot slugs (slug barrels) are also available.