This article is currently under construction. It may contain little or inaccurate information.
A Shotgun is a weapon designed chiefly to fire rounds loaded
The SPAS-12 is a combination of a pump-action and a semi-automatic shotgun.
with multiple small metal projectiles at once. Other types of ammunition have been adapted and manufactured for them, including solid slugs, sub-caliber saboted projectiles, flechettes, and a slew of 'less-lethal' rounds loaded with rubber projectiles or chemical projectiles.
A Pump-action Shotguns are a class of shotgun where spent shells are extracted and fresh ones are chambered. The weapon has a single barrel above a tube magazine into which shells are inserted. New shells are chambered by pulling a pump handle (often called the fore-end) attached to the tube magazine toward the user, then pushing it back into place to chamber the cartridge. However, there are magazine-fed pump shotguns such as the NOR982 which chamber new shells from a box magazine.
A semi-automatic shotgun is a class of shotgun that is able to fire a cartridge after every trigger squeeze, without any manual chambering of another round being required. The weapon uses the force of the gas (created by the accelerated burning of the propellant) not just to propel the wadding which pushes the shot down the barrel, but also to cycle the action, eject the empty shell and load another round.
An Automatic Shotgun is a class of shotguns that uses some of the energy of each shot to automatically cycle the action and load a new round. It will fire repeatedly until the trigger is released or ammunition runs out. Automatic shotguns have a very limited range, but provide tremendous firepower at close range.
