Shotguns in the PLA

As we all know, China produces many different types of shotguns, mostly based on existing US shotguns such as the Remington 870 or 1100. The most common seen shotgun in China seems to be the Type 97 shotgun, a pump-action, magazine fed shotgun based on the 870 but I've never seen them ever used by the PLA. I've seen pictures of local police and security guards armed with them but never anybody in the actual army. While even in the US military shotguns are uncommon compared to other firearms, they are still used and not ever considered out of the ordinary for a soldier to be issued one. In the navy, shotguns are often kept onboard in case of boarding.

So my question is, do any service personnel in the PLA actually use shotguns? And if not why?

Since PAP act as SWAT in China, they are equipped with all kinds of small arms， including shotguns, snipe rifles, etc. If the war breaks out, PAP can change into light infantry very soon.
A Pla infantry squad is more powerful. They pay more attendtion on long-range attack. A Pla squad is equipped with 7 Type95 rifles, 1 Type95 machine gun, 1 Type88 snipe rifle, 1 120mm Rpg. However, all riflemen and the sniper have a 80mm Rpg!
So there is not necessary for Pla to equip shotguns. PAP is enough. To be a CT, PAP is much better than the Philippines. Pla can't use shotguns to attack a Humvee.
In fact Pla really use shotguns, but the soldiers hate it.

all new type shotguns

RickHunter said:

Since PAP act as SWAT in China, they are equipped with all kinds of small arms， including shotguns, snipe rifles, etc. If the war breaks out, PAP can change into light infantry very soon.
A Pla infantry squad is more powerful. They pay more attendtion on long-range attack. A Pla squad is equipped with 7 Type95 rifles, 1 Type95 machine gun, 1 Type88 snipe rifle, 1 120mm Rpg. However, all riflemen and the sniper have a 80mm Rpg!
So there is not necessary for Pla to equip shotguns. PAP is enough. To be a CT, PAP is much better than the Philippines. Pla can't use shotguns to attack a Humvee.
In fact Pla really use shotguns, but the soldiers hate it.
[qimg]http://slide.news.sina.com.cn/iframe/download.php?img=dy/slidenews/8_img/2010_16/966_7196_415160.jpg[/qimg]

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1. Just about every country can't stand to fail as badly as the Philippines did.

2. Shotgun utilization in combat, in modern times to be exact, borne from the CQC need in WWI trench warfare, though that's not the only viable answer: the other option is the SMG - be it those use pistol rounds or carbines with rifle munitions - and both solutions held true to this day. It could be said that the Type 95 series got the carbine/SMG covered, plus simplify the supply chain in which they don't need to allot capacities for the shotgun munitions, just pistol and rifle munitions.

Though if the PLA has actual war experience like the US military, that might change.

3. Shotgun's advantage lies in its wide choice of lethal and non-lethal munitions for various situations, yet it's not well known if the Chinese caught on like that in the West.

some Us army use shotguns in vietnam, what is the advantage of shotgun over auto-rifle?

RickHunter said:

Since PAP act as SWAT in China, they are equipped with all kinds of small arms， including shotguns, snipe rifles, etc. If the war breaks out, PAP can change into light infantry very soon.
A Pla infantry squad is more powerful. They pay more attendtion on long-range attack. A Pla squad is equipped with 7 Type95 rifles, 1 Type95 machine gun, 1 Type88 snipe rifle, 1 120mm Rpg. However, all riflemen and the sniper have a 80mm Rpg!
So there is not necessary for Pla to equip shotguns. PAP is enough. To be a CT, PAP is much better than the Philippines. Pla can't use shotguns to attack a Humvee.
In fact Pla really use shotguns, but the soldiers hate it.
[qimg]http://slide.news.sina.com.cn/iframe/download.php?img=dy/slidenews/8_img/2010_16/966_7196_415160.jpg[/qimg]

Click to expand...

Actually not all of the PAP act as SWAT. There are quite a number of department in PAP that are actually doesn't require as much armament as the others. Plus within the PAP, there are dedicated SWAT units, I think those are called Special Police.

Secondly, PAP function are different from a regular infantry unit function, thus you cannot say that PLA infantry squad is stronger. Because they served different purposes. Although in war, I would agreed that PAP might become regular infantry units too.

In war, both long range and short range attacks are equally important. That is why many of the special forces commandoes are using submachine guns and close quarter combat weaponries. Plus one reason that some infantry adopted Bullpup weapons are because these weapons are shorter yet with longer barrel lenght. These weapon are ideal for close quarter combat, giving it the compactness it need for fighting in fortified area battles.

As to PLA using shotguns, I think they did use shotguns too (and I am not sure whether the soldiers hated it or not - maybe you can provide a credible link in this area). Shotguns are one of the best weapons you would want in close quarter combat (maybe those who have experience with shotgun would like to add on).

rhino123 said:

Actually not all of the PAP act as SWAT. There are quite a number of department in PAP that are actually doesn't require as much armament as the others. Plus within the PAP, there are dedicated SWAT units, I think those are called Special Police.

Secondly, PAP function are different from a regular infantry unit function, thus you cannot say that PLA infantry squad is stronger. Because they served different purposes. Although in war, I would agreed that PAP might become regular infantry units too.

In war, both long range and short range attacks are equally important. That is why many of the special forces commandoes are using submachine guns and close quarter combat weaponries. Plus one reason that some infantry adopted Bullpup weapons are because these weapons are shorter yet with longer barrel lenght. These weapon are ideal for close quarter combat, giving it the compactness it need for fighting in fortified area battles.

As to PLA using shotguns, I think they did use shotguns too (and I am not sure whether the soldiers hated it or not - maybe you can provide a credible link in this area). Shotguns are one of the best weapons you would want in close quarter combat (maybe those who have experience with shotgun would like to add on).

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Of course. However, most PAP usually save hostages, round up drugs and traffickers, put down riots, guard important buildings or VIPs and blablabla...Others are engineers, for example, build railways, repair lines, search for gold, and Chinese firemen are also PAP. So PAP use shotgun more often. You can see them during Shanghai EXPO, armed with shotgun and SMG.

Actually, PLA are equipped with shotguns,type 97-1 , but they seldom use it.

Well to be fair, there ain't any picture that has PLA soldiers, even their spec-op forces, weld a shotgun, and neither do the navel taskgroup that deployed to the Somalia coast has shotgun in their arsenal - at least I didn't see them displayed during the open house late last year.

Pudong International Airport, Shanghai

RickHunter said:

Of course. However, most PAP usually save hostages, round up drugs and traffickers, put down riots, guard important buildings or VIPs and blablabla...Others are engineers, for example, build railways, repair lines, search for gold, and Chinese firemen are also PAP. So PAP use shotgun more often. You can see them during Shanghai EXPO, armed with shotgun and SMG.

Actually, PLA are equipped with shotguns,type 97-1 , but they seldom use it.

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I agreed with you here... What I am saying is that PAP don't act as SWAT. There are more to the Special Weapon and Tactic teams than just puting down rios, guard important buildings/ VIPs, round up drugs and traffickers, etc. In the US, polices (not necessary their SWAT teams), Secret Service and even FBI do the abovementioned task. SWAT teams are more like commandoes and special operation force equivalent to the Army's Green Beret and Navy's SEAL team - not really same in their training, etc, but their status is the same - all of them are Special Forces.

And yes, PAP uses shotguns more often because they are needed mainly for close quarter combat and Shotguns are excellent weapons for this purpose.

As to PLA, they might be equipped with shotguns, however why did they not using it as often might boils down to the fact that their missions are different as compared to the PAP.

My personal experience with shotgun is that I hated it... I hate the self pump feel of the weapon and I don't like the recoil. I would prefer a SMG anytime over the shotgun. But sometime shotgun is needed because of its stopping power. And it is very good weapon to use in fortified area... I can easily blast open a knob on the door or a lock using shotgun (I think) rather than using a pistol or a SMG.

And as to PAP doing guard duty in the expo armed with SMG and shotgun instead of assault rifle is the fact that assault rifle rounds had better penetration power and develope higher energy. So it is not good to use in crowded area whereby the rounds might simply penetrate one fellow, come out from him/her and hit others around him/her.

In this situation, you would want a weapon with more stopping power rather than high penetration power.