You can have a marvelous time with your shotgun. Just be sure to load it regularly, fire it with a steady rhythm, and mebbe give it a a good buff and polish from time to time. Take good care of it and it'll see you through many a tight spot.

Here's the skinny on shotguns:

they have decent range, inflict a lot of damage, cause more damage at close range and have to reload after each shot. A couple close-up blasts will take the fight outta the hardiest opponent. The spread of the buckshot makes it easier to hit your target, although a partial hit draws less blood. Oh yeah, they make a nice loud noise too.

I love gettin' into close fights with little guys using their pistols and just rippin' into 'em with the powerful blasts of the shotgun. Its got a great visceral feeling to it. The fact that your target gets knocked backwards by the force of the shot adds greatly to the feeling that you're really wreakin' havoc. It's nice to leave stray buckshot holes in the walls too.

But the greatest aspect of the shotgun has to be the rhythm you get into with it: BOOM ca-lick BOOM ca-lick BOOM ca-lick BOOM! Shoot, reload, shoot, reload... And if you can hit just the right timing, you'll get into a stone cold groove of gunpowdery killin'. See, if you shoot and try to reload too quickly there's a little pause before the shell slips into the chamber. Not much, but just enough to disrupt your concentration and cause you to lose the track you had on your target. But if you shoot and click the reload button at JUST the right time, the shell slips right in and you can fire again almost before the echo of your last shot has died. Yer shootin' almost as fast as with a rifle, and blowin' away anything in yer path. If you can get into this unconscious rhythm you can go toe to toe with anyone. It's hard to get used to, especially maintaining yer concentration on the rhythm in the heat of combat and not lettin' yerself get distracted, but lemme tell you the results are well worth the effort you'll spend practicing.

Ahhh, the rhythm.

A lovely drumbeat of death. If you've ever found it you'll know what I'm talkin' about. If you've ever been killed by a man with a shotgun who seemed to shoot at an amazing speed, you've experienced it from the other end. Don't stay there! Practice, practice, practice til you've got it and can stay in it. You'll laugh at ignoramuses tryin' ta face you down with their slow double-barreled shotguns. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM... opponents learn to fear the rhythmic knolls of their doom. Heh heh. Oh yeah.

I love ta use Bloody Mary when I'm in the mood for some shotgun fun 'cause she starts out with a shotgun and a good amount of shells, she's really quick with the gun and she can take a hell of a lot of damage. She's one tough lady. Bob Graham starts with a double-barreled shotgun, which is slower, and he's only got a handful of shells. He's also slow as hell at just about everything. Doc Death and Anderson both do pretty well with shotguns.