That's it. I'm sick of all this "Smartscope L42A" bullshit that's going on in the CM system right now. Shotguns deserve much better than that. Much, much better than that.
I should know what I'm talking about. I myself commissioned a genuine shotgun in America for 50 Dollars (that's about three months of working) and have been practicing with it for almost 2 years now. I can even destroy slabs of solid steel with my shotgun.
American smiths spend years working on a single shotgun and fold it up to a million times to produce the finest boomsticks known to mankind.
Shotguns are thrice as damaging as standard issue pulse rifle and thrice as hard for that matter too. Anything a pulse rifle can cut through, a shotgun can cut through better. I'm pretty sure a shotgun could easily bisect an ancient empress at full health with a simple PB.
Ever wonder why predators never bothered conquering Earth? That's right, they were too scared to fight the disciplined marines and their shotguns of destruction. Even in Aliens, xeno warriors targeted the men with the shotguns first because their killing power was feared and respected.
So what am I saying? Shotguns are simply the best sword that the world has ever seen, and thus, require better stats in the CM system. Here is the stat block I propose for Shotguns:
(One-Handed)
Instantly gibs T1s and T2s, crits T3s
Mild recoil
3 tile range to kill
(Two-Handed Exotic Weapon)
Instantly gibs any xeno
No recoil
7 tile range to gib
Now that seems a lot more representative of the cutting power of Shotguns in real life, don't you think?
tl;dr = Shotguns need to do more damage in CM, see my new stat block.