Pump Shotgun

"Shotgun! Alright folks, I'm on crowd control."

- Francis

"Grabbing the shotgun of love!"

- Ellis

The Pump Shotgun deals heavy damage to a single enemy or lighter damage to many, in a spread. It holds eight shells with 128 in reserve. The spread of the 10 pellets in a shell can take down multiple Infected at a time. This often makes it better at handling Hordes than the Submachine Gun or Pistols. It reloads about two shells per second and fires one shell per second. Since Pump Shotgun has a maximum effective range of approximately 40-50 meters, Pistols are its superior for ranged encounters.

All shotguns allow topping off the magazine on the fly and the reloading process can be stopped to handle sudden threats using shells already loaded in its tube magazine. However, if a player is reloading when empty, the shotgun must be racked to chamber a shell and fire the weapon regardless of whether the reloading cycle was completed or interrupted. A good trick is to interrupt an empty reload after the first shot by clicking the fire button and then reloading again, as you have gotten the racking animation out of the way and can immediately fire if a threat appears. Another tip is just to reload constantly and always keep at least one shell loaded in the chamber.

In Left 4 Dead 2, however, all shotguns can be fired right after the first shell is loaded in the dry magazine without pumping animation (which is not realistic, as it means that you can fire a shell which hasn't been actually loaded yet). However, even in Left 4 Dead 2, the pumping animation is shown at the end of the dry reload if the reload isn't interrupted.

Like the Chrome Shotgun, Auto Shotgun, and Combat Shotgun, the Pump Shotgun can kill the Witch with one hit if all the pellets strike her head before she rises, making it useful for getting the "Cr0wnd" and the "Witch Hunter" achievement.

Left 4 Dead 2
The Pump Shotgun returns with a new model. Compared with the Chrome Shotgun, it has a higher DPS due to two more pellets per shell (250 damage/s (If every pellet hits), four more than its Chrome counterpart) but a larger spread. Unfortunately, the Pump Shotgun's reserve ammunition has been dramatically reduced from 128 shells to 56, making every shot valuable.

Tactics

 * The spread of the Pump Shotgun can cover the entire width of most doors and openings. Use this to your advantage, especially during horde attacks!
 * While being attacked by Hordes, it is best to do a melee attack after each shot to push back Infected while pumping, to increase survivability.
 * You can melee as you reload instead of just standing there, waiting to finish reloading. This helps with keeping the Infected at bay.
 * Team members with Pump Shotguns should be at the front to reduce the chance of friendly fire.
 * Crouching will make the pellet spread tighter, allowing some improved accuracy at medium distances.
 * If you are trying to help someone who is surrounded on any difficulty levels aside from Easy or Normal, switch to the Pistol. If you try to use the Pump Shotgun, the shotgun will most likely going to end up dealing more damage to a team mate than to the Infected themselves. If you must use a Pump Shotgun to rescue a surrounded teammate, keep the crosshair off the teammate to kill Infected with the spread.
 * When attempting to headshot a Witch, it is best to have the top line on the crosshair aimed for the Witch's forehead. This tactic, however, only works about 85% of the time.
 * If your teammate is being attacked on the other side of a thin wall, you can use the Pump Shotgun to shoot through the wall to save them.

Pros

 * Extremely powerful early in the game, capable of going through hordes of Infected.
 * A lot more powerful at close range compared with the Submachine Gun.
 * Due to a low rate of fire, it is easy to control and does not run out of ammo as quickly as other guns.
 * Can take out Special Infected (especially Hunters) faster than the Submachine Gun at close range.
 * Low rate of fire means it can reduce the incidence of friendly fire accidents.
 * Shot dispersion means it can take out multiple Common Infected simultaneously.
 * Great for tight, narrow spaces like choke points in buildings.
 * The wide-spread shells make it ideal for crowd control.

Cons

 * Slow reloading time since each shell in the gun must be reloaded individually, although it can still be fired during the reloading sequence.
 * Extremely inaccurate and ineffective at long distances due to its wide shot dispersion and loss of ballistic efficiency.
 * Strikingly less effective against the Tank and other Special Infected at medium to long ranges.
 * Low rates of fire and shot velocities makes it difficult to hit fast moving deflection targets.
 * When grabbed by a Smoker at long range, it is nearly impossible for a player to kill him unaided before being dragged off.
 * On higher difficulties, friendly fire becomes a serious problem. On Expert, one shot can incapacitate a teammate.
 * The loose spread of the Pump Shotgun makes it a difficult weapon with which to cr0wn a Witch.

Behind the Scenes
An unusual ammo counter for the Pump Shotgun's magazine is in the game's files. It shows eight shotgun shells. There are two versions; one for an empty magazine and one for a full one. This has never been seen in any footage, which means that it is much earlier than the footage shown. This seems to hint that in very early versions of the game, the player ammo count would be shown with a physical representation of how much ammo is left in the magazine. It has a resemblance with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault ammo counter.

The Pump Shotgun is based on Counter-Strike ' s M3 pump-action shotgun. Its "price" in the gun's weapon file is the same as the M3's, and it references the M3 in its "animation" listing. The M3's firing sound is played when Francis fires the Pump Shotgun in the first Left 4 Dead teaser, released in January 2007.