Take a good look at this… Guns Magazine from 1956 with an interesting article speculating that the Shotgun would be the Army’s weapon of the future.
They make some good points about the utlitity, but the Shotgun has only remained in a more niche roll. It saw some use in Vietnam and is still used occasionally by the Marines in door to door type operations. Weapon of the future? Not so much.
Back then they said we’d have flying cars too. Huh… Now wouldn’t that be a fun combination?
You use the shotgun to shoot down the flying car.
It’s traditional to shout “Pull!” beforehand….
Like I said… Fun…
“sporterized 1941 johnsons” $159, 03 Springfields $59.00 US Enfields $37.50.. . . . Glad I bought my o3 back in 1977
Much of what has held the shotgun back from wider infantry use has been the pellet. The pellet, like any other spherical projectile bleeds energy at a staggering rate. This was changed somewhat with the flechette, but the flechette brought its own raft of shortcomings. HK took a high-dollar swing at the problem with its CAWS and the new ammunition, but it was still slinging spherical shot. Denser, but still with the BC of an fat, inbred Senator shot out of a circus cannon.
For the shotgun to reach wider issue, it needs a shell that deploys multiple projectiles that retain energy over some distance. They need a load that deploys a smaller number of larger flechette-like darts.
Then you run into cost, and demand. The DOD isn’t issuing letters of interest concerning next-level general issue ammunition for shotguns. They are more interested in Less-Lethal items.
But for me, the shotgun is nearly perfect. It will remain my go-to gun until someone starts selling an electrically-driven razor blade launcher.
It morphed into the grenade launcher.
Some people are rifle people other are shotgun people. I myself have a tendency to prefer a rifle when a shotgun would be the better choice….Then there are people who use the Russian Dozen approach,”I’ll have one of dese, a couple of dem, and some of doze.”