What is the difference between an automatic shotgun and an assault rifle?

Question

it fires rapidly and can fire a single shell as opposed to pellets. what exactly characterizes a shotgun as opposed to an assaul rifle or machine gun?

Answer 1

most assault rifles are accurate up to 600 meters, some up to 800, specifically the military m16a2 or m4. these usually hold a 30 rd clip, but can be adapted for a 50 rd. they can usually be fired semi-auto or in a 3-rd burst, although they do have different types that can be used as fully auto, but SA and 3 burst are the most common. Automatic shotguns can usually hold 6 rounds, and be shot as a SA action but loads automatically. they do fire much further than 30-50 feet. They can travel up to a mile but only accurately to about 200 meters. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

An automatic shotgun is a shotgun that fires more than 1 round per trigger pull.  Simple.  An assault rifle is a rifle that, according to current ideals, is black and "looks dangerous."  Not my words.  

Answer 3

Some shotguns do use single rounds that are really tough they use them up north becouse you can`t use rifles for dear hunting becouse there are too many people around. They only go about 30 to 50 feet though.

Answer 4

Shotguns listed as automatic means auto-loading and will not fire full auto like a machine gun / assault rifle

Answer 5

well shot guns fire shells filled with smaller particles, while the rifle shoots single rounds of a particular caliber. Both fire them repeatedly while the trigger is depressed. (for full auto)

Answer 6

there are semi auto shotguns like the m1014......but no fully automatic shotguns for civilian purchase

there are all sorts of semi auto rifles and pistols as well

kinda c**p really, you should (and may see this in your lifetime because of the dc gun ban overturn) be able to buy any weapon no matter what the caliber and rate of fire

Answer 7

There have been only a couple of automatic shotguns made, and they aren't really available. When you hear somebody talk about a shotgun being an auto, it's a self-loader, but semi-automatic in function; that is, it'll fire once and only once for each pull of the trigger. Shotguns almost always have smooth barrels as well.

Rifles are called that because of the rifling in the barrel. There are grooves that engage the bullet, and the rifling spirals to impart a spin on the bullet, so it's more accurate. A ball shot from a smoothbore is like a knuckle ball in baseball. A rifle bullet in its path is more like a football pass with a pretty spiral.

That's the difference between shotguns and rifles. Now for what makes an assault rifle. For instance, the "assault weapons ban" in the Clinto administration did not modify or regulate in any way a real assault rifle, so you'll have to be careful with the terminology not to be duped as many were back then. An assault rifle is select-fire; that is, it is capable of both semi-automatic fire with a shot occuring with each squeeze of the trigger, or it can be switched to fully-automatic fire, shooting a burst with a single trigger pull. Though popular in the movies as well as the military, it should be noted that no legally owned assault rifle has ever been used in a crime in the US. But not all rifles capable of automatic fire are assault rifles, either. The other important qualification is that they use intermediate-sized cartridges. Thus there are battle rifles like the M-14 and the FN-FAL that are capable of fully automatic fire, but they use full-power rifle cartridges. On the other hand, there are submachine guns that fire pistol bullets, the MP-38 of WW II Germany and America's "Tommy gun" being good examples. The true assault rifle has more power in its cartridge than pistol cartridges, but less than full-sized rifle cartridges.

Machine guns are fully automatic, often without the option of semi-automatic fire. They use full-size rifle cartridges, or sometimes something even larger. They're generally crew-served, needing as a minimum one person to act as gunner and an assistant to act as loader. Some have been magazine-fed, but more generally, one thinks of belt-fed ammunition.