How Shotguns Work

There are automatic shotguns in limited use in the military, including theUSAS-12and theFranchi SPAS-15. These are rapid-fire, high-impact weapons, allowing the shooter to fire up to four shots per second with one pull of the trigger. The USAS-12 uses a drum magazine, and the SPAS-15 uses a box magazine.

Even more powerful is thePancor Jackhammer,目前只a concept and prototype weapon. It's an automatic, drum-loaded shotgun made out ofplastic. The Jackhammer is extremely light and has a remarkably small recoil. Most of the recoil energy is captured and used in loading and firing the next round. As an interesting additional feature, it is possible to take the drum magazine off the gun, attach a detonator and use it as ananti-personnel minethat fires all of the cartridges at once when tripped.