WWII German Shotguns?

[Weird WWII]

I was just wondering if the Germans made any combat shotguns? I know Reinmetal made a shotgun using the same stock and components of the Kar98 but it is a long barreled weapons and is pre-war civilian use I believe. Just thinking about producing some panzergrenadiers with some trench guns and just wanted to find a model that may have been in use.

Brian

[Poliorketes]

Not that I've heard about. Why use shotguns if you have MP40s? If you want to add variation to the Kar98k, equip the guys with Beutewaffen like FN

[postal]

brian sounds cool but I never heard of them using shotguns,and a bolt action shotgun would be bad in close in fighting becuase it well take to long chamber a new shell.I never seen a bolt action shotgun am sure it had problems.as far as a long barrel cut that baby down.now a early german automatic shotgun base on the stg 44 would be cool.

[pbeccas]

My grandad smuggled an Italian Army WW2 single shot 16 gauge shotgun back from his service in the middle east.  It's a small little thing and it kicks like a mule.

[WillieB]

Certainly not general issue, but some Volksturm units used double-and triple barreled shotguns or shotgun/rifle combos.

[Cory]

I used to have a pre WWI civilian rifle/shotgun called an "over under". The worst thing about it was the cumbersome double front and back trigger design. It was hard enough to use hunting, in wartime I would replace the thing first chance I got .

[Poliorketes]

Certainly not general issue, but some Volksturm units used double-and triple barreled shotguns or shotgun/rifle combos.

Which would have been hunting weapons.

[Helen]

Hi,

I found this on the Axis forum by a member named gewehrdork :

"Am only aware of the "survival" Drillings manufactured for the Luftwaffe for bomber aircrews. The drilling is a rifle/shotgun combo.They had a 9x72R rifle caliber barrel below a set of either 12 or 16 Ga barrels - off hand I forget whcih shotgun round they were made for. Various makers made them and the ones I have seen were very top notch quality german shotguns by the likes of Merkel for example. They came issued with a couple boxes of cartridges and encased in an aluminum storage box meant to be placed in the aircraft. I believe these were for east front and african issue , but many were apparently "found" at luftwaffe air bases in france and germany proper when souvenired by US troops." unquote

From another member named Mietek "I read only about plans to equip Volkssturm in hunting weapon, but I didn't see any pictures to confirm it."

I'd imagine that Volkssturm would have brought along their own shotguns for operational use. I'd need to read up on my Volk books.

Here is an interesting photo of a LW Hunting party:



Helen

[postal]

very nice find helen.

[Weird WWII]

Agreed, great info Helen.  I guess any military use was done unofficially or in very limited use with civilian models in hand.  Looks like most civilian models are either 2 shell magazine or double barrel in either side by side or over and under configuration.  I find it amazing that the shotgun didn't become popular in the East with all the trench fighting but if you only had civilian models like we've seen there isn't a whole lot a 2 shot weapon is going to do in such circumstances.

I might have to make up some field modified shotguns done up by their gunsmiths then.  Maybe expand a 2-shell magazine to a 5 and shorten the barrel.  Oh, can't forget a bayonet lug for them up close a personal visits.

Thanks for all the info guys,
Brian

[postal]

sounds good brian,if you want to get real crazy what if the inventer of the jackhammer(full auto shotgun) was born in germany 40 years earler?

[Captain Eaglehorn]

If i had a choice between a MP40 and a pump action shotgun i would take the shotgun, they're the best ever

[Doomhippie]

... especially as the MP 40 was prone to malfunction.

Brian, the closest you get to trench warfare is probably in Italy (Casino). Mayor operations in the east were more maneuvering. As the German lines were notoriously understrength the ability to fight a trench warfare was severly limited. So the use of shotguns wouldn't really do much good there.

I don't know about the partisan warfare, however. Maybe shotguns would have been used there.

[Glitzer]

Drillinge<-Klick for Wikipedia (translatet: Triplets) are traditional German breech loading hunting rifles consisting of 3 combined gun barrels, usually 2 shotguns and a hunting rifle, but other cominations are known too (like one shotgun, one hunting and one small callibre barrel). Drillings (and the rare Vierlings (4 barrels)) were highly (over-)praised for their versatility, maybe that's the reason they were issued to aircrafts. I wouldn't want one for survival (and even less for warfare) as they are far too heavy and cumbersome to take them along. Me and other younger hunters usually don't buy them anymore for that reason, but they still are highly popular in more traditional circles.

EDIT:
To understand my ramblings you have to understand the prefered traditional German hunting style: It's all about sitting on some kind of plattform in a tree and waiting for something huntable to come along. The gun is propably pretty good for this, because you won't know what will come along.

[dice shaker]

Good evening anybody,

 the german soldiers on the picture don´t wear their kit, and they are 3 comon soldiers and 1 sergeant. Normaly they get no permit to hunt. I believe they are a special command to hunt pigeons. The resistance in french use them to transport informations and pictures to england and this men have to shoot the birds down.

 mfG dice shaker