Shotguns Versus Drones
BY Herschel Smith
3 days, 5 hours ago
Patrick Lancaster, an American journalist embedded with Russian troops, films an insane getaway from an armed drone as they take it down with shotguns. pic.twitter.com/HdwaLgZ90Y
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 26, 2025
I’ve brought this up before and most readers were less than enthusiastic. In fact, my suggestion was pretty much panned. It wasn’t a suggestion that was supposed to fix everything all of the time, just another option.
Well, it would appear that sometimes, that option works.
Although I would have chosen a semiautomatic design, probably something with a long barrel like the Beretta 1301 Comp Pro with a magazine extension.
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On March 26, 2025 at 9:56 pm, TMF Bert said:
Sure looks to me like the power line downed it as opposed to their “marksmanship” skills.
On March 27, 2025 at 5:33 am, Susan D Harms said:
What ammo were they using?
On March 27, 2025 at 7:30 am, Larry is Right said:
Looks like the drone may have hit the power lines crossing the road intead of being shot down.
On March 27, 2025 at 7:58 am, George said:
Federal flite control buckshot. should work just fine. it groups tight for a long ways.
On March 27, 2025 at 11:40 am, Mountainrat said:
Bert,
You are 100% correct, it clearly ran into the power line and took itself out.
I am a FAA licensed drone pilot and know a little bit about drones.
Yes, shotguns may have some utility in certain situations but certainly not most. If it is an attack drone you may be able to take it out on it’s final approach, but if it is a surveillance/targeting drone it will unlikely be in range for a shotgun.
On March 27, 2025 at 12:26 pm, scott s. said:
Seems to me not much has changed in the last 150 years for this type of threat. You either have “wall of lead” (solid shot), shotgun (canister), or fused fragmentation (shell). You load out your ammo boxes on your limbers and caissons appropriately.
On March 27, 2025 at 1:21 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Dating back to the era of “dumb” AAA, it is surprisingly difficult to hit/knock-out fast-moving, maneuverable aerial objects. During the latter stages of the war in the Pacific, it was not uncommon for an entire task force of navy men-of-war to open up on approaching kamikazes, putting the proverbial “wall of lead” into the sky to stop them – yet some made it through to their targets.
What tipped the scales somewhat in our favor towards the end was the advent of proximity fused anti-aircraft shells, which contained a miniature radar set in the nose-cone, which – once armed – would detonate the explosive filler once a solid object was sensed inside a certain radius around it.
Drones are not only smaller than aircraft, but can execute maneuvers beyond the envelope of many pilots and their airframes. And even some of the consumer, off-the-shelf models are pretty quick.
Since a ground-based data link can be jammed or spoofed, both sides in the Ukraine conflict have taken to using wire-guided munitions, which don’t have a vulnerable data link to attack.
On March 27, 2025 at 6:28 pm, Dan said:
Shotguns vs armed drones is NOT an ideal situation but if a shotgun is all you have at least it’s something.
On March 27, 2025 at 11:08 pm, Latigo Morgan said:
They were lucky it hit the power lines.
It’s Russia. The place where the Saiga semi-auto detachable-magazine fed shotguns are made. I’d rather be using one of those with 20-25 round drum mags than a tube fed gun. Wall of lead and all that.
On March 28, 2025 at 12:37 pm, Grunt said:
As my old pappy used to say, it only takes that golden BB to take down the bird.