Sawed-Off Shotgun (Fallout 3)

The sawed-off shotgun is a small gun in Fallout 3.

Characteristics
The sawed-off shotgun is a one-handed weapon and reaps the benefits of the Gunslinger perk.

The accuracy and effectiveness of the sawed-off shotgun diminishes rapidly the further you are from your target. Its reload time is also very slow and the gun holds only two shells at a time.

It can be found on random characters around Capital Wasteland, mainly raiders. Another that is in almost pristine condition can be found in a locked cabinet inside the Megaton Armory.

A fully-repaired sawed-off shotgun can fire 167 shots, or 83 and a half loads, before breaking.

Variants

 * The Kneecapper - Handled by Ronald Laren, The Kneecapper is far more powerful than a sawed-off shotgun or even a combat shotgun. However, it cannot score a critical hit, and its 0 critical damage makes even sneak attack criticals rather pathetic.

Behind the scenes

 * Mel wields a sawed-off shotgun in a random encounter in which he attempts to mug the Lone Wanderer, but the gun is not loaded. This is an homage to Mel Gibson, the actor who played Mad Max. In Mad Max 2, Gibson threatened the Gyro Captain using an unloaded sawed-off shotgun.

Bugs
The shells are never "ejected" from the sawed-off. The barrel is pointed down while reloading, giving the illusion that the spent shells have fallen on the ground, but the third-person view shows that the shells are simply cleared from the barrel, without being ejected.