Dragoian Pocket Shotgun

"Give her a pocket shotgun, it's the most size appropriate weapon for her." Dragyia telling the Casteless' quartermaster what weapon to give to the then new squad member No56.
A very small shotgun designed in 1816 as a less bulky weapon for tank crews to repel boarders.
== Overview ==
Designed in 1816 to provide a more compact personal weapon for tank crews (who would typically use either a Hydra Pistol or a sawn-off double barrel shotgun) to repel any boarders. The weapons diminutive size made carrying it easy, but shooting it almost impossible, with the recoil from the two powerful shells being enough to rip the weapon from all but the tightest gripped shooters.
Despite the heinous recoil, the pocket shotgun initially was widely adopted by tank crews due to it's pocketable size making it easier to carry within tanks even though many tank crews still carried a Hydra Pistol as well. However, when new more spacious tank designs came around in the late 1800's and early 1900's the need for such a tiny weapon was reduced and tank crews reverted back to the more comfortable to shoot sawn-off shotguns. 
In 1903, pocket shotguns were removed from the official imperial arsenal and were either sold on the civilian market as a personal defence weapon or given to the Casteless. Despite being removed from the official arsenal, some tank crewmen retained the pocket shotguns out of personal preference and imperial quartermasters will still repair and maintain them as before.
== Firing and Accuracy ==
As the weapon is basically 2 shotgun shells (which in DragonKin terms is a large caliber round which fires extremely pointed flechettes (round pellets would do nothing against DragonKin species)) in a tube attached to a hand grip and trigger, the pocket shotgun has heinous recoil with many users dropping the weapon upon firing a single round due to recoil.
As the weapon is a simplistic hammer fired break-action weapon, a user must cock each barrel's hammer independently before they pull the trigger if they want to fire just one barrel (limiting the recoil to a slightly more manageable level) or cock both hammer's back to fire both barrels (nearly always resulting in the gun jumping out of it's users hand(s) upon firing).
As the weapon is a shotgun, accuracy is poor by nature, however the pocket shotgun's pretty much non-existent barrel (the barrels are just long enough to contain the shell) means that the pocket shotgun's spread is so severe that effective range is less than 10m. This however is perfect for it's intentional use of a tank crew's boarder repellent. This tiny barrel length and massive spread makes the use of self rifled slugs (a solid steel/RDM alloy highly pointed round with rifling built into the round) inadvisable as they are more likely to miss than hit their target due to the barrel being too short to get the slug spinning.Category:Weapons
Category:Dragoians
Category:Dragoian Weapons