Shotgun is a firearm designed to fire cartridges that contain a powder charge and spherical metal pellets, called shot. After leaving the shotgun’s muzzle, the pellets spread into a widening pattern. A shooter can thus hit a moving target more easily using a shotgun than by firing a single bullet from a rifle or pistol.
Shotguns are used chiefly for hunting. Small shotgun pellets, called bird shot, are used in hunting such small game as birds, rabbits, and squirrels. Larger pellets called buckshot or single projectiles called slugs are used to hunt larger game. Law-enforcement officers also use shotguns as back-up firearms. A shotgun barrel for pellets is smoothbore—that is, its inside is smooth. Barrels for slugs may be either smoothbore or rifled (cut inside with spiral grooves). The choke, a narrowing of the muzzle end of the barrel, controls the amount of the spread of shot. Some barrels have no choke.
The caliber of a shotgun is measured by gauge or bore. The gauge of a shotgun is the number of lead spheres of the same diameter as the bore that equal 1 pound (454 grams). Common shotgun gauges include 12, 16, 20, and .410. Although often called a gauge, .410 refers to the diameter of the bore, 0.410 inch.
A single-barreled shotgun either must be reloaded manually after each shot or has a magazine that holds multiple shells. Shotguns that hold multiple shells are typically semiautomatic or have manual pump action. A double-barreled shotgun may have its barrels side-by-side or stacked one atop the other. It has a hinge that enables the barrels to swivel down for loading and ejecting.
See also Ammunition .
