Combat shotgun

Combat shotguns, shotguns modified slightly to increase their suitability for use in combat, have been popular in the United States, both with law enforcement and with the US military (particularly the US Marine Corps), since the 19th Century.

The earliest shotguns specifically designed for combat were the trench guns or trench shotguns issued in World War I. Combat shotguns are favoured partly because of their ability to disable a person rapidly by either killing or severely wounding the target.
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Characteristics

The most common type of shotgun used for this purpose is the manually-operated, slide-action/pump-action type, because it is less prone to malfunction, particularly when dirty, than semi-automatic designs.

Combat shotguns typically have much shorter barrels than shotguns for hunting and usually, though not always, have magazines of modified design to hold more than the three to five shots normal with sporting or hunting shotguns. Most combat shotguns have tubular magazines to hold the cartridges, mounted underneath the barrel, identical to those of hunting shotguns except for being longer to hold more ammunition, though some recent designs have detachable box magazines.

Combat shotguns for military are typically very similar to the police riot shotgun, but the military versions will usually have a ventilated steel or plastic handguard over the barrel to reduce the danger that a soldier will burn his hand on the hot barrel during rapid fire, and usually also have attachment hardware to mount a bayonet under the muzzle. Combat shotguns are also more likely to trade off the increased magazine capacity for the increased size that entails; for example, a combat model would be more likely to have a 20 inch barrel (510 mm) and a 9 shot capacity, while riot shotguns are often found with barrels of 14 to 18 inches (355 to 460 mm) and a capacity of 5 or 6 rounds.

Effectiveness

A Joint Service Combat Shotgun Program report on the legality of shotguns in war states, in support of the use of the shotgun in warfare, "the probability of hitting a man-sized target with a shotgun was superior to that of all other weapons", and goes on to support this with statistics compiled by the British from the conflict in Borneo in the 1960s.

The buckshot typically used in a combat shotgun spreads out to a greater or lesser degree depending on the barrel choke, and can be effective at ranges as far as 75 yards (70 m). The delivery of the large number of projectiles simultaneously makes the shotgun the most effective short range weapon commonly used, with a hit probability 45% greater than a submachine gun, and twice as great as an assault rifle. While each pellet is only as effective as a small caliber handgun, and offers very poor penetration against an armored target, the multiple projectiles increases the likelyhood of one or more peripheral wounds.

Ammunition

The most common type of ammunition used in combat shotguns, whether for military or law enforcement purposes, is buckshot, typically a 2 3/4 inch (70 mm) 12 gauge shell loaded with 9 hardened 00 buckshot, with a diameter of about .33 inches (8.4 mm). Buckshot is brutally effective at close ranges against unarmored targets--enough so that Germany issued a protest against its use in 1918. The only other type of ammunition currently in use in military shotguns are breaching rounds, which are specially designed frangible rounds designed to destroy a door lock or hinge while minimizing the risk of damage to occupants of the room. Shotgun slugs are currently under consideration by the US military as an antimateriel round; the tendency of typical commercial shotgun slugs to deform on impact would render them illegal under the Hague Convention of 1899.

In military use, flechette ammunition has also been used in shotguns (primarily by special forces, such as its use by the SEALs in the Vietnam War), but this is not common. Other experimental shotgun ammunition has been created, such as SCIMTR, but none have been successful enough to be adopted.

References

"Give Us More Shotguns!" by Bruce N. Canfield, American Rifleman, May 2004
Fawcett, Bill. Hunters & Shooters, An Oral History of the U.S. Navy SEALS in Vietnam. NY: Avon Books, 1995. ISBN 0-380-72166-X, pp. 79-80, especially.
Joint Service Combat Shotgun Program, includes the history of the shotgun in combat, and the requirements of the Joint Service Combat Shotgun

Shotguns

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Characteristics

Effectiveness

Ammunition

See also

References