AA-12

The AA-12 (Atchisson Auto Assault-12) is a select fire shotgun considered to be the first shotgun directly designed for military and law enforcement use. It fires at 350 RPM (400 RPM ingame), and accepts an 8 round detachable box magazine, a 20 or 32 round drum. Its biggest rival is the versatile, and extremely popular Russian Saiga 12KS-K select fire shotgun.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The AA-12 is a unique shotgun because it's fully automatic. It has an 8-round magazine capacity, which is doubled when Extended Magazines is attached, which balances the weapon's power and speed, but may have a capacity of 70 extra shells, and fires full-auto. The AA-12 empties its magazine far more quickly (650 RPM singleplayer) than it reloads as the magazine needs to fit onto the magazine support, and then slide up into the magazine well, though this is slightly offset when using the Sleight of Hand Perk. Since it uses magazines rather than individual shells, it is the fastest loading shotgun in the game.

TIP: When using the AA-12, try firing it in bursts, and not to hold down the trigger unless completely surrounded in close quarters. Firing full automatic introduces significant vertical recoil, even with the grip.

In multiplayer, the AA-12 has only one extra magazine, so use it sparingly (unless you have the Scavenger perk to keep your ammo count up.) It also has moderate recoil and poor range compared to other shotguns, so players will have to get fairly close to use it effectively, making it a very good weapon for clearing rooms full of enemies. Using Extended Mags increases the shotgun's magazine to 16 rounds, allowing the user to fire it for longer. This makes it a very good weapon for clearing rooms full of enemies. When combined with Scavenger Pro and Extended Mags, you are given 8 extra shells compared to a non-extended mags AA-12, this totals 48 shells compared to the others equals 40. Many people have suggested it has the worst range of all the shotguns, having to be near point blank range to cause any harm, and its fire rate is so high you have to keep some control when firing the weapon. However, a recent update seems to have made the AA-12's range the same as that of the Striker's.

The AA-12 is commonly used instead of a primary weapon - a lot of players have the Riot Shield for back protection - for its incredible power and fire rate. Many people who use this weapon utilize the perks Scavenger Pro, Stopping Power and Steady Aim. When using this weapon one should either choose Scavenger or Extended Mags as having just one of them is enough to maintain ammo. Using a silencer is almost completely useless as the range is shortened to about five feet, about the length of a non-Commando knife swing.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized
In game, the AA-12 is used in the U.S. Marine missions, and can be found in the weapons room in the mission Training. It comes with a 32-round drum magazine by default, more damage and slightly slower automatic fire than the console, and PC version. It is the second to last weapon to be unlocked for the USMC/SAS multiplayer faction.

Trivia

 * The AA-12 fires faster, has much more range, and lower recoil in singleplayer than in multiplayer.


 * The AA-12 has a different reload when the Heartbeat Sensor is equipped (only available in single player); the empty magazine will actually be thrown away when reloading, instead of disappearing off-screen as is the case with other attachments. The Heartbeat Sensor is also very visible even when aiming down the sight, a characteristic that is shared with multiple weapons including the TAR-21 and the L86 LSW.


 * The AA-12 in singleplayer fires at about 2 times the fire rate as its real life counterpart. In game, it fires at 550-650 RPM, and in reality, close to 300 RPM. In multiplayer the fire rate is far more realistic.


 * The AA-12's extended magazine attachment in-game doubles its ammo capacity to 16 shells. Strangely, as with most "extended mags", there has been no record of a 16 shell magazine ever made for the AA-12, although 20 and 32 shell drum magazines do exist in real life. It's unknown why Infinity Ward didn't decide to have the 20 shell drum magazine as an extended magazine.


 * In real life, the AA-12, as well as many other shotguns, is capable of firing 12 gauge but there is also the specially designed FRAG-12 round which explodes on impact sending deadly shrapnel flying.


 * In the Modern Warfare: Mobilized, the AA-12 has a Drum magazine. In the console version, it is not possible to equip the AA-12 with a drum magazine.
 * In the Spec Ops mission, Acceptable Losses, you start off with the AA-12 with three different attachments, the Red Dot Sight, Silencer and a Heartbeat Sensor. This is impossible in multiplayer.
 * The AA-12 has a much shorter effective range than the SPAS-12; however, this gun is excellent in close quarters as multiple shots are fired almost guaranteeing a kill, whereas if the enemy were to survive the SPAS, it can mean danger.
 * The AA-12 Shotgun is the only weapon of its type that requires the player to pull a charging handle during an empty reload.