Critical article - a response to A. Gaidar's story "The Shotgun". In this article, the author criticizes some common modern ideas about the combat qualities of rifled sawn-off shotguns in comparison with other types of hand-held small arms, compares the tactics of using automatic and one-handed non-automatic weapons, and touches on social issues related to wearing a “short-barreled weapon.” It also describes the combat characteristics of a sawn-off shotgun Mosin rifle of 7.62 mm caliber. The article is an edited version of the chapter of the novel “It’s Hard to Live in Russia Without a Revolver.”