Post by hunter on Oct 21, 2019 5:43:36 GMT
sawed-off shotguns
There are advantages and disadvantages to a sawed-off shotgun, both on- and off-screen. To address your question details, their utilization in real life is nowhere near their prominence in cinema. Even so, they are far from unknown on the street. I'll try to split the pros and cons between reality and fiction:
Real Life Advantages:
Intimidation. If a criminal arrives on scene with a sawed-off shotgun, you immediately know you're probably not dealing with a two bit west end punk. It also means it's very unlikely to be a crime of opportunity - carrying one of these around means you planned ahead.
Concealment. If your needs demand both the firepower of a shotgun and surreptitiousness, a sawed-off is for you. Baggy khakis and a fake limp are all you need to get this into any non-checkpointed public place, and drawing it would only be marginally more difficult than drawing a sword.
Tactical Movement. In confined or interior environments, a shotgun's spread can assist in providing shot coverage in hallways, corridors, alleys, and other tight passages. A full length shotgun, though, will often be as long (or longer) than a hallway is wide, which will force the carrier to traverse at least a portion of the hallway carrying the firearm at the low ready. This will add significantly to his or her reaction time should the shotgun need to be fired. A sawed-off, on the other hand, will have the benefit of having a foot or so of both barrel and stock removed.
Real Life Disadvantages:
Availability. Just getting one of these (legally) is an utter pony show, involving tax-stamped permits, transfer costs, background checks (through the ATF no less), and exorbitant fees. Should you choose to bypass this, you'll have to 1) find someone with a piece like this, 2) hope they're willing to sell it, 3) wonder both why they've got it and why they're selling it, 4) pay what will assuredly be an inflated price for it, and 5) cross your fingers that it's functional - you're not going to get any test fires on a shotgun you buy out of some dude's trunk. Exceedingly difficult in either case.
Excessive Shot Spread. If you saw the barrel off behind the choke, you're going to affect the shot pattern of the shotgun by spreading it out. This will increase coverage at the expense of lethality; even if you hit your intended victim, you're unlikely to get a kill shot, opening the possibility for escape or return fire. If you use large shot, you may miss altogether. Here's a comparison graph of shot sizes (remember, the larger the shot size, the fewer pieces of shot in a shotshell, and vice versa - this brings a tradeoff, as smaller shot will have more coverage with less kill chance, while larger shot will be less likely to hit but cause more damage if it does):
Real Life Advantages:
Intimidation. If a criminal arrives on scene with a sawed-off shotgun, you immediately know you're probably not dealing with a two bit west end punk. It also means it's very unlikely to be a crime of opportunity - carrying one of these around means you planned ahead.
Concealment. If your needs demand both the firepower of a shotgun and surreptitiousness, a sawed-off is for you. Baggy khakis and a fake limp are all you need to get this into any non-checkpointed public place, and drawing it would only be marginally more difficult than drawing a sword.
Tactical Movement. In confined or interior environments, a shotgun's spread can assist in providing shot coverage in hallways, corridors, alleys, and other tight passages. A full length shotgun, though, will often be as long (or longer) than a hallway is wide, which will force the carrier to traverse at least a portion of the hallway carrying the firearm at the low ready. This will add significantly to his or her reaction time should the shotgun need to be fired. A sawed-off, on the other hand, will have the benefit of having a foot or so of both barrel and stock removed.
Real Life Disadvantages:
Availability. Just getting one of these (legally) is an utter pony show, involving tax-stamped permits, transfer costs, background checks (through the ATF no less), and exorbitant fees. Should you choose to bypass this, you'll have to 1) find someone with a piece like this, 2) hope they're willing to sell it, 3) wonder both why they've got it and why they're selling it, 4) pay what will assuredly be an inflated price for it, and 5) cross your fingers that it's functional - you're not going to get any test fires on a shotgun you buy out of some dude's trunk. Exceedingly difficult in either case.
Excessive Shot Spread. If you saw the barrel off behind the choke, you're going to affect the shot pattern of the shotgun by spreading it out. This will increase coverage at the expense of lethality; even if you hit your intended victim, you're unlikely to get a kill shot, opening the possibility for escape or return fire. If you use large shot, you may miss altogether. Here's a comparison graph of shot sizes (remember, the larger the shot size, the fewer pieces of shot in a shotshell, and vice versa - this brings a tradeoff, as smaller shot will have more coverage with less kill chance, while larger shot will be less likely to hit but cause more damage if it does):
Unwieldiness. Even though a sawed-off shotgun is far and away more portable than a full size shotgun or a rifle (either sniper or assault), it still bows down to the portability offered by a simple handgun. This applies to ammunition reloading as well - even if you're very well-practiced with a shotgun (i.e. able to reload very quickly, by touch alone, in low light), there is no comparison in reloading speed. With practice, dropping an empty 9mm magazine and slamming another one home is a two- to three-second process - you'd be lucky to get two shotshells loaded in the same amount of time. And unless you're planning on wearing torso-slung ammunition belts, pistol ammunition is exponentially easier to carry. A pair of cargo khakis engineered properly, or a coat well-apportioned with storage, could easily conceal hundreds of rounds in magazines.
Turn Around Time in Firing. Most shotguns you'll find in this category are either single shot or pump action; either way, you're going to have some lengthy turn around times on putting ammunition downrange. Depending on a number of variables, the difference between a shotgun and a pistol here, not including reloading considerations, is probably three or four to one.
Fictional Advantages:
Visual Impact. A character just gets an injection of awesome sauce when he strides into a shot carrying a sawed off shotgun. This is especially true in Westerns, where their use is often portrayed in the course of stagecoach defense (or, on the other side of the law, the making of mayhem):
The tactical look of modern shotguns can also play into a plot point:
Either way, I would imagine using a shotgun would provide some screenplay flexibility; even if a shot needs to pan out to a wide angle, you would still be able to tell that the character is armed - something you'd normally lose with a pistol.
Opportunity for Audio-Visual Effects. The thumping boom of a shotgun translates well to cinema, and a foley artist can usually get away with embellishing this sound on film; this also applies to the ominous sound of a shell getting racked into the chamber of a pump action shotgun. Similarly, an on-screen shooting victim's reaction can be much more exaggerated compared to other weapons - they tend to double over in mid-air and careen backward after being hit with a shotgun blast.
Turn Around Time in Firing. Most shotguns you'll find in this category are either single shot or pump action; either way, you're going to have some lengthy turn around times on putting ammunition downrange. Depending on a number of variables, the difference between a shotgun and a pistol here, not including reloading considerations, is probably three or four to one.
Fictional Advantages:
Visual Impact. A character just gets an injection of awesome sauce when he strides into a shot carrying a sawed off shotgun. This is especially true in Westerns, where their use is often portrayed in the course of stagecoach defense (or, on the other side of the law, the making of mayhem):
The tactical look of modern shotguns can also play into a plot point:
Either way, I would imagine using a shotgun would provide some screenplay flexibility; even if a shot needs to pan out to a wide angle, you would still be able to tell that the character is armed - something you'd normally lose with a pistol.
Opportunity for Audio-Visual Effects. The thumping boom of a shotgun translates well to cinema, and a foley artist can usually get away with embellishing this sound on film; this also applies to the ominous sound of a shell getting racked into the chamber of a pump action shotgun. Similarly, an on-screen shooting victim's reaction can be much more exaggerated compared to other weapons - they tend to double over in mid-air and careen backward after being hit with a shotgun blast.
