why do shotguns have a shorter range?
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It depends on the type of ammo you load… Good shotgun should fire almost anything you put in it..
But typical shotgun shell is bunch of little pellets… High spread and air drag (due to small weight) makes typical shotgun ineffective at longer distances
Generally they aren’t rifled as you’re firing buck shot.
Rifling imparts spin to the bullet from a rifle gyrostabilising the round allowing it to resist outside forces.
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The real answer is because they are designed without range optimization in mind.
Basically they operate at a much lower pressure than high-powered rifle rounds. This is accomplished with the large bore and the relatively small powder charge.
The projectile(s) contributes to this as well. A large, unaerodynamic slug would need a magnitude more pressure behind it to get it to go as close as far as a large rifle round with any accuracy. And buckshot pellets are both less aerodynamic and lower mass, meaning they carry less momentum to travel distances.
Well, first of all, the range is relative to the type of shotshell being used and some other variables.
I’m assuming that you’re comparing it to a rifle, though, more specifically a high-powered rifle. These guns can be accurate out to ludicrous distances because of 2 key factors. 1) The shape of the bullet is designed for aerodynamic efficiency, and 2) the rifle’s barrel has spiraling grooves cut in it (the rifling) that spin the bullet as it makes its way out of the barrel. This is much like throwing a spiral in football. It stabilizes the object in flight helping it to travel more efficiently.
On the flip side, a shotgun traditionally shoots shot shells, which is just a cup like container of anywhere from a few to dozens of loose spherical projectiles. The entire premise of a shotgun is to scatter a lot of projectiles over a certain area to increase the likelihood of hitting a small or moving target like a rabbit. Instead of having to aim precisely with a single chance of hitting it, you get to vaguely point at the target and have multiple chances of hitting it.
So the point of each gun is entirely different.
So when a shotshell is fired, the little cup full of projectiles flies down the barrel, and almost immediately upon exiting the gun just falls away leaving a bunch of little pellets flying though the air, possibly colliding with each other, and gradually spreading out in a conical shape (if the end of the gun is the point of the cone).
Not only are the pellets not aerodynamically optimized in shape, but they also were never stabilized by rifling to fly straighter either. Lastly, they usually have less mass than a bullet and less mass means less momentum, which means it will fall out of flight sooner.
Plus, the fact that there are two different types of range: effective range and just range. Range is just how far a pellet will travel. Effective range is how far a pellet will travel with enough energy to kill the game you’re shooting at. And those are two very different figures.
Far enough out, bird shot will just bounce off off of skin.
typically they don’t.
Shotguns have the unique aspects of having the most variance when it comes to ammunition types.
your standard shotgun shell will fire a cartidge that contains a numbers of pellets sized by gauge(which is a measure of how many pellets you could make out of a pound, size size a 12 gauge sheels would be equivalent to a .73).
but you have stuff like Slugs which fire a single self contained shot and this has pretty decent reliable range(max range at whihc you are guaranteed ot hit your target). however unlike with rifles Shotgun barrles normally are Smoothbore meaning they dont get ot “spin” the shell to increase travel time.
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