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
A long gun is a category of firearms with long barrels. In small arms, a long gun or longarm is generally designed to be held by both hands and braced against the shoulder, in contrast to a handgun, which can be fired being held with a single hand. In the context of cannons and mounted firearms, an artillery long gun would be contrasted with a field gun or howitzer.
Various long guns used by the United States military during World War II, including rifles, carbines, submachine guns, and shotguns. In contrast, partially visible to the left are various handguns.
U.S. Army Brigadier General Claudius Miller Easley practicing with an M1 Garand
Long guns on display in front of the Préfecture maritime in Toulon