The Terrible Shotgun

The Terrible Shotgun is a weapon that only appears in Fallout 3.

Characteristics
It is a unique variant of the Combat Shotgun and has the highest base damage of all weapons in the Small Guns category.

Location

 * It is in the possession of Smiling Jack in the Evergreen Mills cave bazaar.

Weapon characteristics

 * The Terrible Shotgun has a far larger spread than normal shotguns. Full damage is only done if all pellets hit, this is very hard to do as its accuracy is lower than the combat shotgun. This is where the Kneecapper can be all the difference in a straight up fight. In close combat this is one of the best guns to have. You generally get one shot kills when aiming for the head.

Strategy

 * The best way to use this weapon is for point blank shots. Be prepared to charge headlong into enemy fire if this is to be a primary weapon. A hit of med-x will help reduce damage taken (because that is what Med-X does).
 * Shots from ten feet away throw pellets so randomly that it will occasionally dismember different body parts of the victim, even though the player might be aiming for the head of an opponent. Although there is a large cone-like spread of fire that is released when the trigger is pressed, a high concentration of the burst must hit the target to deliver maximum damage.
 * If using The Terrible Shotgun in V.A.T.S. aiming for the chest is always a tactical choice. The spread of the shotgun will most likely hit some kind of vital appendage, still dealing maximum damage.
 * However, The Terrible Shotgun does have unrivaled stopping power (80 damage versus a regular combat shotgun's 58 damage when Small Guns skill is capped at 100). This allows the shotgun to kill average enemies even if not all pellets hit the head.
 * Its ideal usage is either for fast moving animals (Deathclaw or Yao Guai), room to room fighting, or for other near point-blank confrontations. In other words, this gun is best suited for use in urban environments with occasional application in wilderness. Urban encounters with Super Mutants works well with the weapons wide spread, since they are a rather large target.
 * This shotgun, coupled with at least 81 AP, can easily kill almost any enemy in the game with point-blank headshots. Waiting for Deathclaws or Yao Guai to get close enough, entering VATS, and cueing three shots at their head point-blank can easily kill them.This makes the Dart Gun obsolete, since The Terrible Shotgun kills or at least heavily damages the monsters, allowing even Dogmeat to easily finish them off.


 * This weapon receives as much as (+40) damage on a critical strike. Consider using this instead of a melee weapon for sneak attacks.
 * In addition to the above, the critical hit damage is actually applied individually on each pellet the weapon fires in a shot outside of V.A.T.S.. If all nine pellets critical hit at the same time (such as in a point-blank sneak attack critical attack), the weapon's total critical damage is 9 x 40 = 360! And with the Better Criticals perk, it can go up to 540. Add in the base 80 power of the weapon, and then double the whole thing because of the sneak attack bonus, and the weapon's total damage turns 1240, quite close to that of the Fat Man itself! In fact, if the damage is increased further with a head shot, this weapon's destructive power against a single target becomes even greater than the Fat Man, being able to kill even a Super Mutant Behemoth with a single sneak attack critical head shot!

Obtaining the gun from Smiling Jack
--NOTE: rather than being a glitch, this has to be with AI; it's not smart to keep a weapon you cant use equipped, so it's unequipped if there is no ammo. if there is another weapon in the inventory that DOES have ammo however, that weapon is equipped in the first weapons place(unless the character/weapon in question is subject to a bug). --NOTE: As of the new patch Smiling Jacks shotgun ammunition respawns when stolen even if you leave the bazaar, save, reload. This causes him to not place the Terrible Shotgun in his inventory. (Tested on 360)
 * You can kill him (no Karma effect) and get not only his gun but all his inventory, in which case you should sell him as much of your inventory first as he has caps, then you get back your stuff and still all the caps which he doesn't seem to have on him otherwise.
 * You can get him to repair some equipment, then kill him, the caps you gave him for the repair will be on him when you loot the body. This is highly recommended
 * You can engage him in combat, the goal being not to kill him, and just shoot it out of his hand, and picking it up before he does. Leave the Bazaar and come back after a minimum of 72 hours. This is the time it takes for an NPC or group of them to "forget" about the trouble a player might have caused. Return, and you still have a valuable business partner.
 * Possibly the most effective and quickest way of obtaining the shotgun, pickpocket his shotgun ammunition, leave the Bazaar, save the game then reload and re-enter the Bazaar. The gun will then be an available item in his inventory and can now be pickpocketed.He has no use for it with no ammo? (possibly a glitch).
 * Its also possible to break the Terrible Shotgun with an aimed-shot, then put your weapon away to end the fight, at this point you've forced the gun into Jack's inventory. You can now pickpocket it with no effect on your trading relationship or karma.

YouTube Videos
Obtaining The Terrible Shotgun Gz57ZM2eDfA

Related videos:
 * | How to get The Terrible Shotgun