THE SHOTGUN AS A WEAPON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1864, 15 August 1918, Page 1

THE SHOTGUN AS A WEAPON.

ONE war suggestion which has been put through in record time is the shotgun. Experts and soldiers a i various times have urged the era-, ployment of the repeating shotgun both for aviators and infantry, ever since America entered the war: and now General- Pershing’s men are using a military shotgun. The new weapon is a comparatively short repealing shotgun of the pnmn- action type, holding six shells in its magazine. Each she’d is of the paper kind, slit'll as is used in sporting shotguns ,and contains nine pellets of Mo. (ill buckshot, or about the size of a .32 calibre bullet. When tired, the new American gun sprays the contents of each shell over an area measuring nine feet horizontally, and about three foot vertically, so that it is almost impossible not to hit a large number of enemy infantrymen coming to the attack in the typical mass fonhation of the Germans. As for the penetrating power of the buckshot, it is reported that during a recent test the hail of lead went through a two-inch plank, with plenty of energy left for further damage, at 150 yards from tho 1 muzzle. One of the problems which had ro he solved in adapting the shotgun to military practice was that of the bayonet. The shotgun barrel is quite thin —so much so, in fact, that it would not offer sufficient support for bayonet work. This difficulty was overcome, however, by providing the shotgun with an outer stool coat or jacket, which, being perforated and held a short distance away from the barrel proper, so as to form an air space, acta as a cooling member while affording rigid support for the bayonet. The American Army shotgun weighs 81} lbs., complete with bayonet. It is equipped from muzzle to stock with a leather rifle-sling, so that it may be slung over the neck and shoulder.