A combat shotgun is a shotgun issued by militaries for warfare. The earliest shotguns specifically designed for combat were the trench guns or trench shotguns issued in World War I. While limited in range, the multiple projectiles typically used in a shotgun shell provide increased hit probability unmatched by other small arms.
Confederate cavalryman with muzzle-loading shotgun
A group of US Marines in Iraq in 2005, armed with a combat shotgun, assault rifle, and squad automatic weapon
United States Marine carrying a Winchester M97 shotgun
A Mossberg 590 being used by a US Marine for door breaching in Karma, Iraq, in 2005
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
