Shotguns in World War I

[Scattergun]

I had a M97 WWI trenchgun and traded it a while back..

[Striker5]

I have no documentary evidence, but I seriously doubt the shotgun could be used for skeet and trap - ing grenades. With all the wacky things that can happen in combat, maybe it happened once and was just one of those things - but as a tactic I just don't see it. I had the privilege of speaking to a MOH winner from Korea. In addition to many other courageous acts in defending a lone foxhole (he was staying w/ an injured battle buddy and the rest of his company was either killed or abandoned their positions), he told us that the Chinese through a number of grenades at him. He threw them back or, as pertains to this discussion, used an E-tool as a makeshift bat and said he smacked a number of them away. One of his hands was twisted into a sort of claw where a grenade he was in the act of throwing back exploded.

Thanks for the document post, as this is also something I've heard a few times but never had any details.

[olds442tyguy]

Keep in mind German grenades of the time weren't fragmentation units and weighed less than a pound and a half, some even being three fourths of a pound.

The stick grenades were also pretty fragile. I suppose if a guy was really lucky he might be able to deactivate one by shooting it with out the powder igniting?

I wouldn't want to try it, but if I run across any replicas at a gun show I might buy some to use as pigeons.

[Barry in IN]

I may be imagining this (has happened before) but I read H.W. McBride's "A Rifleman Went To War" in the past year, and I think he says he heard about shotguns being used for that in the trenches...but he heard it after the war and wrote it off as "one of those tales".
But I might be thinking of someone else.