The blunderbuss is a 17th- to mid-19th-century firearm with a short, large caliber barrel which is commonly flared at the muzzle, to help aid in the loading of shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity or caliber. The blunderbuss is commonly considered to be an early predecessor of the modern shotgun, with similar military usage. It was effective only at short range, lacking accuracy at long distances. A blunderbuss in handgun form was called a dragon, and it is from this that the term dragoon evolved.
A flintlock blunderbuss, built for Tipu Sultan
An English flintlock blunderbuss
A French blunderbuss, called an espingole, 1760, France
Musketoon, blunderbuss and coach gun from the American Civil War era
A shotgun 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 are also available.
Silhouettes of several shotguns of different types and configurations. Break action: double-barreled shotgun Lever action: Winchester Model 1887 Pump action: Winchester Model 1897 Semi-automatic: SRM Arms 1200 Automatic: Atchisson AA-12
A view of the break-action of a side-by-side, and an over-and-under double-barrelled shotgun, both are shown with the action open
A modern reproduction of the Winchester M1887 lever-action shotgun
Closeup of MTs255