Buckshot Myth Busting: How Today’s 00 Buck Loads Fare Downrange

By Kevin Davis

Many people have false impressions about shotguns based on gunplay in Hollywood movies. There’s so much misinformation, it doesn’t seem to want to go away. I remember the Howard Hawks Western “El Dorado” starring John Wayne and co-starring a young James Caan as “Mississippi.” John Wayne’s character, Cole Thornton, attempts to aid Mississippi by giving him shooting lessons, only to find his skills deplorable. Thornton takes Mississippi to “The Swede,” where he buys a sawed-off, double-barreled shotgun as a holstered sidearm. In one memorable shootout from the movie, a desperado is taking off down a street when Mississippi lets loose with his scattergun. Although he misses the bad guy with his shot, he hits a sign that falls down and whacks the guy.

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