Shotgun Dits

“Well, I’m about as tall as a shotgun, and just as noisy.”

Truman Capote

Shotguns have been used by the British Army from the jungles of Malaya to the fields of South Armagh and more recently in Afghanistan. The current issued combat shotgun is described on the British Army website as:

“…a semi-automatic, tubular magazine-fed weapon cambered for the 12 gauge cartridge. The operating system is the ARGO (Auto-Regulating Gas Operated) Twin (two gas pistons) System with a rotating bolt head and dual locking lugs. It is fitted with an EOT tech sight for use day or night and a fixed iron sight. It has a telescopic buttstock.”

No make and model is given but elsewhere on the internet it’s described as a Benelli M4.

I recently published the above photo on our podcast social media. Though fun to use I didn’t rate shotguns in the “stay behind” OP role much preferring a rifle. Not that we were ever given the option of having them in the armoury. I got some interesting feedback on our social feeds as a result of the post The first one is from a mate I served with in the Special OP Troop called KR about the use of shotguns in the jungles of Belize. He served two tours in South America and dated the first one by remembering he watched John Travolta in Staying Alive in a Mexico City cinema.

He recalls:

Can’t think of anything more devastating at close range than a shotgun. Pre troop,did two tours in Belize, took my shotgun with me, a 12g Mossberg (Note: KR was allowed by his unit to take a personal weapon on this tour). Whenever I could I took it out with me and was asked only once by the BC why I had it. He seemed a bit skeptical and asked me to aim at some coconut type fruit on a tree about 50 meters away. I thought if I fuck this up that’s the shotgun locked up. Hit the fruit which blew into atoms. “Oh,yes!certainly effective,carry on!“

Later I had the barrel reduced to 18″the minimum legal length in UK at time. Added a folding stock, and the thing fitted on your lap. When we had the IRA shootings in Germany I went to police and asked if i could get a Waffenschein a German firearms carry license. They were actually quite sympathetic. If you get a letter from your CO they said which realistically was nil. I lived off camp at the time in a non married quarter area so was an easy target. So I simply drew my private weapons out from the armoury and ‘transported ‘ them every day. This included the pump action and a few times guys from troop would get into the car and I’d tell them there’s a sport holdall for emergencies on the floor. Legally I was not on right side of law but as they say in the Wild West better judged by 12 than carried by 6!

KR then offered his thoughts on the use of a shotgun for the stay behind role:

The shotgun for stay behind role? No, awesome for CQB,but you’re going to need a bit of reach in most situations. So an assault rifle of some type,plus logistics, all the same ,can interchange mags, ammo etc. But jungle or urban a shotgun is excellent. If you use a 00 buckshot cartridge, depending on the manufacturer, it’s going to have 6+ balls and each ball weighs around +/- 60-80 grain. A nato 9mm round weighs 90 grain. So its like being hit by half a dozen rounds at the same time in layman’s terms.

This next dit was supplied by former Parachute Regiment soldier @AnnoyingBloke69 on Twitter about the use of shotguns in South Armagh in the 1980s.

We used to carry the Remington 870 Wingmaster on patrol in South Armagh circa ‘88. We primarily did full time covert OP’s so generally carried 1 Remington, 1 x M203 and 2 SA80’s, partly practical but generally just to be different. Obviously 9mm for the cars along with HK53’s due to the telescopic stock and of course a flask.

Stanley flasks were big back in the day in every sense. Almost indestructible and would stop a 7.62 short round. Often used on tasks where weight and size weren’t an issue. Great on range days if you didn’t want to drink the cofftea that came in a minging Norwegian container from the cookhouse.

That’s it for this blog. Feel free to drop comments about your own experience with shotguns on exercise or operations below.

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