# Shot Gun v. Rifle?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 24, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391 "2004-11-24T01:35:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/1 "2004-11-24T01:35:45Z")
What is the difference between a shot gun and a rifle? You’ll probably say a rifle is more powerful, I WAG, but why? If that is true, what makes it so? - Jinx
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### Author:  [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/2 "2004-11-24T01:43:48Z")
A shotgun usually fires multiple small pellets (shot) from a smoothbore barrel. The shot scatters and spreads out over distance.
A rifle usually fires one projectile at a time from a rifled barrel. The rifling in the barrel imparts a spin on the projectile, stabilizing it in flight.
You can’t really say that one is more powerful than another, as there are all different types and sizes of rifles and shotguns. A 12 gauge shotgun is certainly more powerful than a .22 LR rifle, but a 20 gauge shotgun isn’t going to be as powerful as a .460 Weatherby rifle.
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/3 "2004-11-24T01:56:03Z")
Shotguns are smooth-bore, and fire either slugs or shot. Slugs are used for short-range targets that you want to really seriously knock down, but slugs have crappy ballistics, and shed velocity quickly, making them short-range only propsitions. Shot spreads fairly rapidly, greatly increasing your chance of hitting difficult, small, or manuevering targets. Shot has an ever more limited range than slugs, but enable the taking of birds on the wing, and the like. At close ranges, shotguns are _extremely_ potent.
Rifles literally have a rifled barrel - A barrel containing spiraled ridges and grooves (called lands and grooves) that impart spin, and thus stability, on the pojectile. Rifle bullets have much better ballistic shapes, and usually have higher sectional density of projectile. That combination of factors mean that rifle bullets remain potent to far greater ranges than shotgun projectiles. Rifles can powerfull, but relatively few rifles possess the raw muzzle energy of a 21- or 20-gage shotgun.
That said, some shotguns are relatively light-weight, such as a 28-gage or .410. Likewise, some rifles are pip-squeaks, and some are real fire-breathers. When talking firearms, all things have their exceptions.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/4 "2004-11-24T02:19:16Z")
What was said above is absolutely correct. To make things simple, a shotgun is very effective at sending scattershot up to 40 or 50 yards for a kill. Beyond that, it is not much good. A moderately powerful rifle on the other hand can send a single projectile that can be aimed to 200+ yards (and in some cases much, much more) and still be deadly.
A shotgun is effective at killing flying birds such as ducks and geese due to its spread while a rifle is good at killing large animals or people from a longer distance.
These are huge generalizations but that is the gist of it.
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/5 "2004-11-24T02:39:25Z")
Nutz!
This:
> [@Tranquilis](#):
>
> … 21- or 20-gage shotgun.
Should read: “… **12-** or 20-gage shotgun.”
Dyslexia strikes again. :mad:
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/6 "2004-11-24T16:14:19Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#):
>
> Shotguns are smooth-bore… Rifles literally have a rifled barrel
Some shotguns have rifled barrels. They are only to be used with slugs. I have a Mossberg 500 with a rifled barrel.
The following is a gross generalization. Exceptions certainly exist:
**Shotgun projectile** : Big. Slow. Inaccurate. Short range.
**Rifle projectile** : Small. Fast. Accurate. Long range.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/7 "2004-11-24T16:39:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> You’ll probably say a rifle is more powerful, I WAG, but why? If that is true, what makes it so?
While there have been attempts to scientifically quantify the “power” of a gun and/or bullet, I believe it’s ultimately subjective.
First you have to define what you mean by “power.” Are you talking about the _kinetic energy_ of the bullet? Or the _momentum_? At the muzzle or 300 yards down range? Is the bullet diameter important? What about effective range? Or accuracy?
Other factors also come to mind. A person might argue that a small caliber frangible bullet is more lethal (and thus more “powerful”) than a large caliber FMJ bullet.
And then there’s practicality and handiness issues. For example, which would be more “powerful” for clearing a building during wartime: a soldier with an M-4 (a light weight, fully-automatic rifle which uses a .223 round), or a solider with a 30-lb., bolt-action .50 BMG rifle? Cleary the .50 BMG uses a more powerful round. But one could argue that, for clearing a building, an M-4 rifle is more “powerful.”
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/8 "2004-11-24T16:55:01Z")
Shotguns are for birds. Rifles are for deer. Pistols are for people.
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### Author:  [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/9 "2004-11-24T17:24:40Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> Some shotguns have rifled barrels. They are only to be used with slugs. I have a Mossberg 500 with a rifled barrel.
Why, what happens if you use a shot load in a rifled barrel?
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/10 "2004-11-24T17:34:41Z")
Think outside the box Paul. I’ve shot pheasant with a .22 rifle and plenty of eastern hunters use shotguns on deer.
Shotguns have lower pressure ammunition than rifles. Shotgun ammunition will rarely have more than 11,000psi chamber pressure while rifle rounds can easily top 60,000psi\*. Handgun ammunition can easily approach 36,000psi but of course are much smaller than most shotgun rounds. This pressure difference is reflected in the more fragile construction of a shotgun shell which is typically a plastic or a paper hull with a thin, stamped sheet meatal head covering the base while a rifle cartridge is much thicker drawn brass. Shotguns may have only 1/4" chamber thickness at the breech end tapering quite thin at the muzzle while rifles have much more metal holding things together.
\*Current Winchester reloading manual
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/11 "2004-11-24T17:38:19Z")
> [@Cowgirl Jules](#):
>
> Why, what happens if you use a shot load in a rifled barrel?
You get to spend some time in one of your local emergency rooms. Just picture shot pellets being tumbled in a spiral pattern, possibly jamming together to block the barrel, which then explodes in your face. Ouch.
As for another difference between rifles and shotguns: if you tried to hold up a liquor store with a sawed-off rifle, people will think you’re an idiot.
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/12 "2004-11-24T17:57:28Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#):
>
> You get to spend some time in one of your local emergency rooms. Just picture shot pellets being tumbled in a spiral pattern, possibly jamming together to block the barrel, which then explodes in your face. Ouch.
Even though some screwed up stuff would happen in the barrel, I can’t imagine the blowing up of the gun in your face is where the energy would be released.
I’d suspect that you’d probably damage the grooves but the pellets should still fire.
This is all assuming that you somehow made a shotgun shell that fit inside of a rifle chamber. Correct Me IIW, but shotgun shells are pretty much ALWAYS thicker than rifle shells.
As far as **power** goes. . .that’s more of a function of the shell than the gun, no? The gun’s firing pin just ignites the powder that is already in the shell.
Has anyone ever made a “pistol” shotgun? I know the Terminator sometimes wields a sawed-off shotgun as such, but has there ever been one made.
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### Author:  [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/13 "2004-11-24T17:58:10Z")
I dunno. I’ve shot .22 LR pellet loads that were specifically designed to be fired in a .22 rifle. Never had a problem, but they’re not particularly usefull.
They make shot loads in a lot of handgun calibers too.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/14 "2004-11-24T18:43:06Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> This is all assuming that you somehow made a shotgun shell that fit inside of a rifle chamber. Correct Me IIW, but shotgun shells are pretty much ALWAYS thicker than rifle shells.
>
> As far as **power** goes. . .that’s more of a function of the shell than the gun, no? The gun’s firing pin just ignites the powder that is already in the shell.
Power is a complex thing. It is not only determined by how much propellant is in the cartgridge but by the pressure it is under. The burn rate of smokeless propellant is a function of pressure. A loose pile will just make a spectactular “fwoosh” of sparks. Contained in a rifle chamber where it has to push a metallic bullet through rifling grooves pressure will rise dramatically. In a shotgun less effort is needed to push the shot, usually contained in a plastic cup called a wad, though the barrel, so pressure will be a fraction of what it is in a rifle even with a similar amount of propellant.
> [@](#):
>
> Has anyone ever made a “pistol” shotgun? I know the Terminator sometimes wields a sawed-off otgun as such, but has there ever been one made.
Such a weapon has a very speficic legal status. A normal shotgun must have a barrel of at least 18" and an overall length of at least 26". If it doesn’t and isn’t registered with the BATF it is **very** illegal. There are two ways to legally obtain such a weapon. One is to register a shotgun as a short barreled shotgun and pay a $200 tax stamp. This weapon may have a shoulder stock but it isn’t a requirement. The other way is to build a weapon with a “virgin” reciever which has never been built as a shotgun. This can be registered as an AOW, literally an “any other weapon” as it isn’t a in a defined legal category such as sporting shotgun, pistol, rifle, machine gun, etc. Pen and cane guns and other guns that looks like something other than a weapon are AOWs. An AOW has no length requirement but it may not have a shoulder stock. An AOW has a $5 tax stamp.
Similar things have been done with rifles such as Steve. McQueen’s lever action “mare’s leg” in some movie I can’t remember the title of now. Again if it was built from an existing rifle it has to be registered as a short barrel rifle with a $200 tax stamp but if built from a new bare reciever it can registered as an AOW.
Winchester built many model 1892 “trapper” rifles with 12" and 14" barrels prior to 1934. The BATF has placed these on a special Curio and Relic list which exempts them from the 16" barrel length requirement for rifles in the NFA.
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/15 "2004-11-24T19:03:40Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> Has anyone ever made a “pistol” shotgun? I know the Terminator sometimes wields a sawed-off shotgun as such, but has there ever been one made.
There’s a famous handgun made around the time of the civil war that fired 6(?) .45 bullets and then had 2nd barrel and trigger that fired a single shotgun shell.
I can’t remember what it was called.
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### Author:  [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/16 "2004-11-24T19:05:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Why, what happens if you use a shot load in a rifled barrel?
> [@Bryan Ekers](#):
>
> You get to spend some time in one of your local emergency rooms. Just picture shot pellets being tumbled in a spiral pattern, possibly jamming together to block the barrel, which then explodes in your face. Ouch.
It’s not dangerous to fire shot through a rifled barrel. While it’s not recommended due to poor performance, it’s not a safety issue.
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> Even though some screwed up stuff would happen in the barrel, I can’t imagine the blowing up of the gun in your face is where the energy would be released.
>
> I’d suspect that you’d probably damage the grooves but the pellets should still fire.
It won’t do any damage.
> [@](#):
>
> This is all assuming that you somehow made a shotgun shell that fit inside of a rifle chamber. Correct Me IIW, but shotgun shells are pretty much ALWAYS thicker than rifle shells.
It’s not a matter of using a shotshell in a rifle chamber. Some shotguns have rifled barrels intended for slug use. You can fire shot through these barrels, but you won’t be happy with the pattern.
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/17 "2004-11-24T19:41:28Z")
If you need to blow your head off, grab a shotgun.
If you need to blow someone else’s head off from a distance, grab a rifle.
If you want to play Cilnt Eastwood as Dirty Harry, grab a pistol.
(Hollywood Shuffle…“Sneakin’ into the Movies” movie scene. Movie being reviewed is “Dirty Larry” …
Larry: “Go ahead make my day”
One of the reviewers: "…they wait for Larry to reach into his pocket and pull out a big ass gun. What did they think he was reaching for…his American Express card.?
Yeah! “Go ahead – make my day?? BAM, do fifty bullets in your ass make your day?”
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/18 "2004-11-24T19:57:01Z")
> [@HPL](#):
>
> There’s a famous handgun made around the time of the civil war that fired 6(?) .45 bullets and then had 2nd barrel and trigger that fired a single shotgun shell.
That was the LeMat revolver. It actually had a **nine** shot .44 cylinder (what we would now call .45) and a center shotgun barrel about the size of a 20 guage. It had a single trigger and a selector on the hammer to fire from the revolver or shotgun barrel. It was cap and ball so no cartridges and typically fired round balls though conical bullets were sometimes used.
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/19 "2004-11-24T20:20:31Z")
> [@Padeye](#):
>
> That was the LeMat revolver. It actually had a **nine** shot .44 cylinder (what we would now call .45) and a center shotgun barrel about the size of a 20 guage. It had a single trigger and a selector on the hammer to fire from the revolver or shotgun barrel. It was cap and ball so no cartridges and typically fired round balls though conical bullets were sometimes used.
That’s it. I was going from memory so I’m suprised I was as close as I was.
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### Author:  [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shot-gun-v-rifle/276391/20 "2004-11-24T21:45:15Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> This is all assuming that you somehow made a shotgun shell that fit inside of a rifle chamber. Correct Me IIW, but shotgun shells are pretty much ALWAYS thicker than rifle shells.
You can safely fire a .45 Colt pistol cartridge out of a .410 bore shotgun, but not the other way around.
I realize this doesn’t help.
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