Semi-auto shotguns are also a regular choice for many law enforcement agencies. They are most commonly used for home defense, hunting, target sports, and competition. Semi-automatic shotguns are versatile and offer a variety of uses, making them very popular. These shotguns are typically magazine fed, with magazines offering a capacity of anywhere from 2 to 30 rounds or more. Because this process is completed automatically, requiring only a pull of the trigger, this type of shotgun is sometimes referred to as self-loading or autoloading. This process continues each time the trigger is pulled until all of the ammunition has been used. With each squeeze of the trigger, a single round is fired, the casing extracted, and the next round moved into the “ready” position. Unlike a pump-action shotgun, which requires the user to manually slide the forend with each shot, a semi-automatic shotgun only requires the user to squeeze the trigger in order to fire a round.
