A Shotgun is a type of weapon featured in the Call of Duty series. Unlike other firearms, most shotguns fire a volley of multiple pellets at a time, but have a limited range. These traits make shotguns extremely devastating at close range, but literally useless at a distance. Shotguns can be manually cocked, pump-action, lever-action (where the user must pump/cycle the lever between shots), semi-automatic, or fully automatic. Pump-action/lever-action shotguns usually have a lower rate of fire, but more damage and range, while semi-automatic/fully automatic/break-action shotguns usually have a higher rate of fire, but lower range. In nearly all Call of Duty multiplayer modes, shotguns are primary weapons. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, however, they are secondary weapons.
Additionally, some other weapons can be used in shotgun mode:
The Proteus sniper rifle can be toggled to shotgun mode by default.
The "Cerberus" epic variant of the Erad submachine gun in multiplayer and Zombies is equipped with the Master Key gun perk, allowing a underbarel shotgun. The feature is also available to the campaign version of the Erad by default.
The "Butcher" epic variant of the Type-2 assault rifle in multiplayer and Zombies is equipped with the Eighty Seven gun perk, allowing it to be toggled to Akimbo shotguns mode. This result also occurs in campaign when the Type-2 is equipped with the "Akimbo Shotguns" upgrade.
The "Switchblade" epic variant of the EMC is equipped with the Supercell gun perk, transforming it into a comapct energy shotgun pistol.