Why the term shotgun? (bright light!)

[gsparesa]

A cannonball is propelled or shot from a cannon but we don't call the cannon a shotgun. However, a slug or shotshell load is propelled or shot from a shotgun but we call the long barrel gun a shotgun. If a long barrel gun is loaded with shotshells then it should be called a shotgun. If a long barrel gun is loaded with slugs it should be called a sluggun. Since a long barrel gun can propel both slugs and shotshells, shouldn't we just call it a "sloughtgun". If you are loading your long barrel gun with cocktail loads, combination shotshells and slugs, you definitely are using a "sloughtgun". Agreed?

[gsparesa]

shot + slug = slought

[1911su16b870]

It is a gun that shoots buck-shot...shot-gun...

[HardwoodRods]

What if it's a short barrel?

[Calico1404]

Anyone saying sloughtgun sounds like they had a cocktail or 2 themselves

[deephouse]

I would like 60 seconds of my life back please


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[Rosereader]

Or we could just take the terminology back a few hundred steps and call it a "fowling piece".

[Jimmy's]

Scattergun to many of the 1800's.

[stillwater562]

I would like 60 seconds of my life back please


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This ^^^^^

[gotshotgun?]

I'm clearly an expert on this topic...

Shotgun? Yes. Sloughtgun? Go home; you're drunk.

[TKM]

I used to think that people using "shotty" or "gauge" were just about as dumb as it was possible to be.

I was wrong.

[Jimmy's]

I used to think that people using "shotty" or "gauge" were just about as dumb as it was possible to be.

I was wrong.

Hey wait! can you say that?

[TKM]

Sure. I've been wrong before and I'm always willing to admit when I make mistakes. It's part of being a mature individual.

[CALI-gula]

It is a gun that shoots buck-shot...shot-gun...

Exactly. It's not a stretch.

Just as a pellet-gun shoots pellets. A bb gun shoots ball-bearings (bb's), and a rifle is differentiated from a musket because it has rifling. A "cannon" shoots a cannon-ball. A potato guns shoots potatoes. A squirt gun shoots squirts of water. A staple gun shoots staples. A nail gun shoots nails. A hot-glue gun shoots hot glue.


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[JackRussel]

But a handgun doesn't shoot hands, should it be called a bullet gun?