Shotgun
The Shotgun is a projectile weapon firing a large, solid slug or a dispersed fragment shot. Some shotguns are drum-fed, others are pump-action, while the most primitive are single shot weapons. Their versatility and ease of construction compared to weapons such as lasguns, makes them widely used weapons. They are popular with hive-world scum and local police.
The Shotgun is used by the Imperial Guard, although the Lasgun is preferred. It is not highly accurate but it is easier to fire from the hip than the Lasgun. It is easy to produce however and is an ideal weapon for worlds without the technological base to produce las weapons.
The combat shotgun, in the form of the Arbites Shotgun, is extensively used by the Adeptus Arbites for both combat and crowd control, and various types of rounds have been developed for such tasks. The Arbites Shotgun fires frag shells, solid slugs, gas rounds and guided executioner rounds.
Space Marines Scouts also sometimes employ shotguns. Though their shotguns seem to be more powerful than those of other Imperial organizations, they still lack some of the range, power and armor piercing qualities of bolters. However, they are, in some cases, more useful than bolters because they can be fired easily while advancing and charging into close combat.
Known Variants
- Lucius Pattern Mk22c Combat Shotgun-Used by Death Korps of Krieg engineers. 5
Famous Shotgun Users
Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken.4
Sources
- Warhammer 40,000: Wargear
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
- Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition)
- 4:White Dwarf (AU/NZ) 375, pg.70
- 5Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks - Part Two pg.97
