Scatterguns, a good pump can be had for pretty cheap on the used market. I see a lot of people buying a shotty and they think it is great until they go and shoot it. Buckshot and slugs have a pretty good recoil to it, so they end up selling them off at a loss. The thing about a shotty is that you need to practice with them and know their limits. For example, tonight a buddy and I were shooting our Mossberg 930 SPX's with different ammo to see if these different loads were better than what we use now. Our targets were set at 25 meters. Military 00 buckshot, the stuff floating around from various dealers was dismal; on a man target out of 5 rds of 9 pellet only 7 pellets were on body--7 out of 45 pellets. 5 rds of 00 buckshot, Winchester value pack from Wal-Mart put about 30 pellets on the body out of 45. Winchester Tru Flight reduced recoil was about 30 pellets but not near the velocity of standard loads. Ended up really liking the Winchester Ranger 00 buckshot since it put 35 pellets on target. Slugs, well they leave big holes and can hit all day long at a hundred with them. Saying all that, my house load is #4 buckshot since the pellets are not as big and have a less chance of carrying through the walls, etc and increases the number of pellets on target. The main thing with a shotty is practice and know what it will and will not do--it is not like on tv where you level it at your hip and clear a room.

Sorry for long ramble, just hate seeing people get a shotgun and fire a few rounds and think that it will level someone off their feet with each pull of the trigger.