History Main / SawedOffShotgun

* ''VideoGame/BattlefieldHardline'' has the sawed-off shotgun, which is exclusive for the robber faction.

* A pistol version is shown on the cover of the first edition of ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'', a Smith & Wesson revolver with part of the trigger guard removed and the barrel cut back to just after the H in "Smith".

** The Remington Roomsweeper, a shotgun that comes pre-sawed-off and features an adjustable "choke" that allows it to substitute quite handily for a full-length shotgun (though with reduced range). It's probably the second most common weapon amongst Shadowrunners, right behind the Ares Predator handgun.
** One supplement for the game even included a weapon that was basically a pistol chambered for shotgun shells. Even the book commented on how brutal that'd be on the user's wrist. Then again, a somewhat similar weapon also [[http://www.taurususa.com/gun-selector-results.cfm?series=41&toggle=tr exists in real life]], even though it's only chambered for .410 gauge/.45 Long Colt and isn't nearly as hard on the shooter as a heavier gauge might be.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''

* Oddly, for a game that's largely an enormous mass of action movie tropes and badass, ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' handles its sawed-off shotgun comparatively realistically. You can't fire both barrels at once, it only holds two shots, and although devastating at extreme close range, it's much less useful than your standard pump-action at longer ranges. The primary mistake is that he uses it one-handed.
** The primary advantage of the sawed-off shotgun is that, by abusing the game mechanics, you can shoot-dodge into a group of enemies, blast one or two, then immediately shoot-dodge again to reload immediately. ''Max Payne 2'' "fixes" this by removing the reload aspect from shoot-dodges, but you can still reload incredibly quickly by doing the [[RuleOfCool fancy-looking]] [[UnorthodoxReload bullet time reloads]]. The ''[[Film/TheMatrix True Matrix]] Mod'' adds [[GunsAkimbo Sawed Off Shotgun Akimbo]] as a weapon option once you pick up a second one. It doubles the capacity of a normal one, making it a four-shot weapon.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''

* The Duplet in ''Videogame/{{Metro 2033}}'' is a side-by-side break-action sawed off shotgun, built from [[ScavengerWorld pieces of metal piping and train parts]]. It does huge amounts of damage per shell - the most of all shotguns, in fact - and a double-barreled discharge is a devastating attack that nothing bar a boss can take and remain standing, but it generally gets dropped for the more easy-to-use Uboinik/Shambler revolving shotguns which have the advantage of a PistolWhip or BayonetYa attack (although a depth-of-vision glitch impedes you from checking the watch with the Uboinik equipped). The Duplet returns in ''Videogame/MetroLastLight'' with [[GunAccessories customization]], such as extended barrels for longer range, or even two extra barrels, whereupon each trigger pull is a dual barrel blast and SecondaryFire spits out a mighty wall of lead, at the cost of longer reload times.

** In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', the T-800 2.4 fires and cocks a lever-action sawed-off shotgun [[FiringOneHanded single-handed]] ''while riding a motorcycle''. [[JustifiedTrope Of course, he is a Terminator]].

* Played dead straight with the damage upgrade to ''VideoGame/BioShock2's'' shotgun; the game literally says sawing off the barrel makes it deal more damage. [[CriticalResearchFailure Precisely why the developers think long-barreled shotguns actually exist is anyone's guess]].

* In ''Film/TheLastRitesOfRansomPride'', The Dwarf carries a pair of double-barreled shotguns that he wields GunsAkimbo.

** The sawed-off also makes an appearance in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico'', where it has become the Mariachi's WeaponOfChoice.

* ''Film/MadMax1'': Max uses one as his main weapon during his RoaringRampageOfRevenge, which he modifies himself. Similar sawed-off shotguns remain his WeaponOfChoice across the rest of the series.
* Used by the bandit who pull off the ArmedBlag at the start of ''Film/MoneyMovers''. TruthInTelevision as sawed-off shotguns were the WeaponOfChoice for armed robbers in Australia in TheSeventies.

* In ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'', this is the WeaponOfChoice of Columbus throughout the film, which he sticks to due to familiarity given his high-stress. It's also a very practical weapon to survive Zombieland given the punch it packs.

* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'': Season 2 has the Kitchen Brothers who use these as their WeaponOfChoice. They attach the guns to their belt via a cord, so when not in use they let them hang at their sides, concealed under their trench coats.

* Zoe's WeaponOfChoice in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' is a sawed-off Winchester rifle called a "Mare's Leg." She has ImprobableAimingSkills with it, once [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shooting a gun out of a man's hand]] from a nearby hilltop a split-second after he'd just drawn it ''[[BeyondTheImpossible from another man's holster]]''.

* The WeaponOfChoice for BountyHunter Jesse Colton in ''Series/MacGyver1985''.

* Thanks to the highly vegetated jungle environment during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, pretty much everything from shotguns to grenade launchers have had their barrel sawed off at some point to ease maneuvers. Special mention goes to the "[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch Bitch Gun]]", a weapon used by the [[UsefulNotes/AussiesWithArtillery SASR]], which is basically an SLR (a semi-auto [[CoolGuns/BattleRifles FN FAL]] used by the Commonwealth nations for much of the Cold War, for those uninformed) with everything in front of the gas block sawed off and the bipod detached to make room for an under-barrel [=XM148=] grenade launcher.

* * ''LetsPlay/MikeBurnFire'': Discussed during one of Zach's many tangents about guns in the episode 271 of the ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' series, collected in the second Gun Rants compilation. Mike claims his third-favourite handgun is the Mosin-Nagant and when pressed claims he meant the sawed-off version. He's later seen wielding said gun.

* ''LetsPlay/MikeBurnFire'': Discussed during one of Zach's many tangents about guns in the episode 271 of the ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' series, collected in the second Gun Rants compilation. Mike claims his third-favourite handgun is the Mosin-Nagant and when pressed claims he meant the sawed-off version. He's later seen wielding said gun.
-->''Zach:'' The barrel has been cut down to 4 inches long and they completely removed the stock so you're now shooting 7.62x54R which is like, 5 inches long,[[note]]just above 3 inches, actually[[/note]] you're shooting that out of something that has like a 4 inch barrel, so it's just a fireball the size of ''you'' coming out of the end of the gun.
-->''Mike:'' Who needs shoulders?

** Played straight in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' and [[VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}} 2]]. The first game even gives you a sawed-off ''rifle'' as a quest reward, although the sawing is just one of the modifications - the result is to all effects a revolver firing .223 cartridges, and is the most powerful small arm in the game, even more than the [[RareGuns Desert Eagle]]. Amusingly, it also appears completely unchanged in the sequel as a RandomDrop from raiders - meaning that you can accumulate several of these "One-of-a-kind weapon(s), obviously made with care and skill." The sequel also starts recruitable character [[spoiler: Cassidy]] off with a sawed-off double barrel shotgun. Played straight in that it somehow deals more damage than a regular shotgun, though the range is reduced.

* ''Film/KillingThemSoftly'' takes it UpToEleven. The barrels of one character's shotgun have been [[http://www.imfdb.org/images/a/a6/KTS-Sawnoff-2.jpg cut down so short]] that they are ''shorter than the shells they are loaded with''.

** It returns in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' as a pump-action, and is still bike-compatible, and now bus-compatible as well, for some reason. It has the highest damage per pellet of all shotguns but very poor range and wider-than-average spread. ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'' also added the Double-Barreled Shotgun, which works almost identically to the ''The Lost And Damned'' version, but but shoots both barrels in quick sequence with one trigger pull.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': In the final episode of season 4, the Hawkins group arms themselves with various weapons in order to try and destroy Vecna. As part of the preparations, Max watches Nancy shorten a shotgun barrel with a saw; the latter comments that what they're doing is likely a felony. [[spoiler:In the climax, a few bullets from it are enough to toss a weakened Vecna from a window.]]

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': In the final episode of season 4, the Hawkins group arms themselves with various weapons in order to try and destroy Vecna. As part of the preparations, Erica watches Nancy shorten a shotgun barrel with a saw; the latter comments that what they're doing is likely a felony. [[spoiler:In the climax, a few bullets from it are enough to toss a weakened Vecna from a window.]]

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': In the final episode of season 4, the Hawkins group arms themselves with various weapons in order to try and destroy Vecna. As prat of the preparations, Erica watches Nancy shorten a shotgun barrel with a saw; the latter comments that what they're doing is likely a felony. [[spoiler:In the climax, a few bullets from it are enough to toss a weakened Vecna from a window.]]

* ''VideoGame/Ashes2063'' features the sawed-off shotgun as an alternative to the pump shotgun[[note]]which is itself sawed-off at the stock[[/note]]. Contrary to the usual example, the sawed-off deals slightly ''less'' damage per shell than the pump; its real selling point is that you can deliver two shells in very quick sequence to get a mutant or tougher raider out of your face in an instant, and despite the power loss, one shell from the sawed-off can still put down most basic enemies just fine. Like all weapons, in ''Afterglow'' the sawed-off has two workbench upgrades: the first adds a third barrel, and the second improves its recoil handling.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' has an unusually accurate example as one of the most common available weapons. ''Blood II: The Chosen'' {{nerf}}s it with slower firing and reload speeds, worse accuracy, and rarer ammo (mostly by way of not letting enemies use it until the expansion). Even so, it has a greater damage-per-shot rate than the Auto Shotgun introduced in ''The Nightmare Levels''.

* Dante of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' has used, along with his trademark guns Ebony and Ivory, a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun in every game, finally given the name "Coyote-A" in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4''. The same game also has concept art that explains why a double-barreled break-action doesn't need to be reloaded frequently with every shot thanks to having it's own magazine (and Dante's demon powers).If you upgrade your Gunslinger style enough, he can also use his shotgun like a lead-slinging nunchaku, or do the Gunslinger's version of his Stinger move, which has the added benefit of adding some extra damage by pulling the trigger after thrusting it into an enemy and then blasting them away.

[[folder:Web Serial Novel]]
* The party in ''WebSerialNovel/StatlessAndTactless'' find a sawed-off shotgun that Joe quickly names "Murder-Blood the Truth-Knower" after a brief disagreement over whether or not it was used in a murder. Ian's character Mari ends up carrying it around.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

->''"Combat Shotguns can deliver a heavy punch at close range and a generous pelting from a distance. Combat Shotguns are double-barreled, sawed-off killing sticks. These gats are the ultimate in pellet warfare. Beware, two barrels not only deliver more fire power, but take more time to reload."''

* Craftable in ''VideoGame/ProjectZomboid''. Take a regular shotgun, take a saw to it, get the sawed-off shotgun. Damage and range go down, but so does the shotgun's considerable weight, and the death arc gets wider too.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' has several shotguns, but for about the first third of the game you only get a sawn-off TOZ-66 coach gun. It starts well as a decent short-range weapon, and it's your best defense against most mutants, but the fact that it's handled realistically[[labelnote:*]]no lightning-fast reloads with both shells in one hand, no opening or closing the breech with just a jerk of the wrist, and both hammers have to be manually cocked[[/labelnote]] makes it a pain to use during firefights and on anything requiring more than two shots to go down. Since such enemies come around pretty early, especially in a vanilla experience, it's easy to come to hate the sawed-off as you constantly reload it slowly, getting shot full of holes in the meantime. The shotties that are [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter actually good all around]] avert the trope – even the relatively short Maverick 88 isn't sawed-off, just short-barreled.

** Also, the stock Shotgun available to the Engineer, Soldier, Heavy and Pyro classes is sawed off at the grip (no stock), much like the picture on top of this page, though the Engie and Heavy also have access to unlockable full-sized shotguns with different strengths and weaknesses[[note]]The Engineer's "Frontier Justice" holds half as many shells and deals boosted damage based on "revenge crits" stored up by making kills with the user's sentry gun once it's destroyed instead of getting random crits. The Heavy's "Family Business" holds two more shells than the standard one, but in return deals slightly less damage per shot.[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}} 3'' brings us the [=VC8=] shotgun pistol, which as its name suggests, is a tri-barrelled shotgun shrunken down to pistol size.
* In ''Videogame/TheLastOfUs'' Joel finds a sawed off shotgun called the "Shorty", which is classified as a handgun in the game's inventory system.

* Dante of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' has used, along with his trademark guns Ebony and Ivory, a double barreled sawed-off shotgun in every game, finally given the name "Coyote-A" in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4''. And because he's a badass, Dante does not reload it at all, AND it's a break-action shotgun. If you upgrade your Gunslinger style enough, he can also use his shotgun like a lead-slinging nunchaku, or charge at an enemy and ram his sawn-off into them like a spear, before pulling the trigger, blasting them away. 'Tis great fun.