Some of the common complaints about the shotgun as a fighting tool center around ammunition management — that it has a relatively low capacity, spare ammunition is bulky to carry, and it’s slow to load. These are, in a way, valid complaints, but when you look at how many shells it typically takes to solve your issues, the shotgun’s lower capacity isn’t as much of a problem. Similarly, while it takes a while to fully replenish a shotgun’s tubular magazine, it’s generally very quick to get one round into the chamber via the ejection port, and one round of 12-gauge buckshot can do a lot. That said, ammunition is still bulky compared to rifle or pistol ammo, and carrying individual shells is a bit different than carrying spare magazines.
The most important place to carry more ammunition is on the gun itself. On-gun methods have become exceedingly popular over the years — with good reason. By and large these days, the shotgun isn’t a primary weapon carried by a
