[El Gato]

But with a shotgun, in a highly intense and nerve wracking situation, even if you don’t score a direct hit, odds are very, very high that you will strike and wound the target - and that by itself might be enough to buy you the valuable few seconds you need to survive.

Much experience with shotguns? I can miss an entire covey of quail, several times, and that's not nearly so "intense and nerve racking", although it is both. And that's throwing lots of little shot (usually 7 1/2). You can miss with a shotgun, but it doesn't take too much practice to make it unlikely with a cylinder "coke" and at across the room range. But even at that range, it's better to shoulder the weapon and use your entire upper body to point the weapon, rather than fire from the hip. (Although that is kind of fun, as anyone watching Humblegunner's "Third Annual Texas Cowboy Memorial Shoot" video can see. That's me, the second shotgunner, shooting from the hip with the Maverick Serious social purposes shotgun. The goat thought it was funny as heck though.)

[djf]

Lol!!

Guns!
Good grub!
A goat!

Life can’t get much better!!

;-)