Combat Shotgun (Fallout)/Fallout3

Information
This model of combat shotgun was deployed as a close assault fire team's primary weapon (supplemented with explosives, an N99 pistol, and a power fist) during the Anchorage Reclamation, and many working units have been scavenged by raiders, slavers, and Talon Company mercs in the Capital Wasteland.

Vastly superior to the sawed-off shotgun, the combat shotgun combines a large drum magazine with mutilating close-range damage. The only drawback is the weapon's poor reliability, as the combat shotgun deteriorates quickly. However, considering it is commonly used by human opponents, and its use in traps, you can usually find enough to keep at least one in fully working order.

Unlike the combat shotguns in previous Fallout games, the combat shotgun in Fallout 3 is not fully-automatic.

The combat shotgun can fire a total of about 145 rounds, the equivalent of 13 reloads, from full condition before breaking.

When viewing the Pip-Boy image for the weapon, the Vault Boy's face will have some beard stubble. The actual mechanism of the shotgun is quite curious. The weapon's ejection port is several centimeters behind the magazine, which appears to feed shells into the middle of the barrel.

The Terrible Shotgun
The Terrible Shotgun is a unique variant of the combat shotgun and has the second highest damage of all weapons in the Small Guns category. The weapon has a far larger spread than normal shotguns, and full damage is only done if all pellets hit, making it most effective in close-quarters.

Critical hit damage with this weapon is actually applied individually on each pellet the weapon fires in a shot outside of V.A.T.S. If all nine pellets critical hit at the same time (such as in a point-blank sneak attack critical attack), the weapon's total critical damage is 360. And with the Better Criticals perk, it can go up to 540. Add in the base 80 power of the weapon, and then double the damage because of the sneak attack bonus, and the weapon's total damage increases to 880 or 1240 with Better Criticals, the latter of which gets it close to the damage of the Fat Man. In fact, if the damage is increased further with a head shot, this weapon's destructive power against a single target becomes even greater than the Fat Man, being able to kill even a super mutant behemoth with a single sneak attack critical head shot.

The Terrible Shotgun can fire a total of about 146 rounds, the equivalent of 13 reloads, from full condition before breaking. Even so, the weapon will not jam until 120 rounds are fired. Given that you do not reload until the current magazine is expired you will have 10 reloads before the gun begins to jam, but the gun will only have three chances to jam before it breaks.

This gun is carried by Smiling Jack, the non-hostile raider merchant in Evergreen Mills. You can kill him for it, with no Karma loss, or pickpocket it from him.

Charon's Shotgun
Compared to the normal shotgun, it has a lower damage per second due to the lower attack speed, lower critical damage, and less ammunition per reload. It also has minor changes to health, projectiles per shot, weight, value and lacks any action points. It can not be used by the Lone Wanderer.

It is used and carried by Charon and can not be dropped by him.

Charon's combat shotgun has to be cocked exactly like a BB gun or lever-action rifle, and even has the same reload animation, although combat shotguns are semi-automatic and magazine fed.

Variants

 * Simulation: A sim-only version of the weapon which differs in health, having such a high rating as to be essentially non-degrading. It also has a cleaner, less battered appearance than the standard Fallout 3 version.