If the fighting shotgun could express emotions or feelings it would more often than not “feel” neglected or under-appreciated. If you consider the history of the shotgun as a weapon of war it has always excelled and proved to be a formidable tool. So, why is it that the shotgun, despite its track record, is still such a misunderstood and underused fighting tool? Is it too complicated for the average troop to understand and operate? Naturally, the answer to that question is no.
When training for personal combat why do we devote so much time to rifle and pistol training and so little to the shotgun? Here’s some hypothesis.
During the period of peace or at least when there is no active conflict, we spend a fair amount of our firearms training time shooting qualification courses. Whether pistol or rifle, you fire “X” number of rounds on paper and receive “X” score. Score high enough and you are designated as an “Expert”.
Even if you are not shooting a qualification course, paper or cardboard targets still provide a quantifiable result for practice. It is easy to see so many holes in the x-ring or 5-ring. You have an obvious score or outcome.
Once the fundamentals of weapons handling are mastered, firing carbine-sized rifles or pistols is enjoyable. Recoil from most is considerably mild. Hundreds of rounds can be fired with no ill effect from recoil inertia. Finally, we cannot rule out the psychological component. It looks and feels “cool” to rapid fire a pistol or rifle.
