Source: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
The prevalence of FPV (First Person View) drones on the battlefields of the Russo-Ukrainian War has been seeing the continued expansion of the shotgun as a means to combat them. At first, civilian shotguns were appearing in the hands of both Ukrainian and Russian troops, such as vintage TOZ-34 and TOZ-66 shotguns (neither of which are pump-action). The Ukrainian military has been purchasing more modern shotguns, notably those produced by Turkish arms manufacturers. One such example is shown here in the hands of a soldier of the 36th. Marine Brigade “Mykhailo Bilynsky”. The weapon is the Safari HG-105M semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun, built by the Ukrainian non-state arms manufacturer Latek LLC. This is a license-built variant of the HG-105 which is designed and produced by the Turkish company Hima Arms.
Why are shotguns the preferred means to combat FPV drones? The reason is pretty basic. Shotguns throw a lot of metal pellets into the air which greatly increases the chances of striking a flying drone and potentially damaging it. The very common #00 (sometimes called “double ought”) buckshot shell contains 8 or 9 pellets, each .330 inches in diameter. #1 buckshot holds 12 to 16 pellets while #4 buckshot has 21 to 28 pellets though this comes at the expense of diameter size. Another advantage of buckshot is the spread of the pellets as they travel through the air. Thus, rather than relying on sheer luck to down a moving FPV drone with a pistol or rifle bullet, a single shotgun shell can hurl several projectiles into the air at one time with a single pull of the trigger. As such, the odds of a strike are increased. A skilled user will have conducted patterning with his weapon. This involves firing the shotgun at a target from different ranges to see how many pellets hit. Often, the further away the target is, the fewer pellets will hit. As such, by patterning, the firer will be able to tell the optimum engagement range in which the majority of pellets will hit.
Specifics of the Safari HG-105M are not given (even on Latek's website) and so what follows are the specifications for the Hima Arms HG-105D to which the Safari HG-105M is most likely similar to. The receiver and a portion of the weapon's internals uses 6082 aluminum alloy while the furniture is polymer. The barrel, bolt, bolt carrier, and the lock is made of 4140 steel. Overall length of the HG-105D is 28.5 inches with a empty weight of 8.6 pounds. The HG-105D has interchangeable chokes (full, modified, and cylinder), allowing the user to optimize accuracy and range by constricting the barrel to maintain a tighter pellet pattern at longer ranges (full choke) or, if desired, the opposite...a wider spread at closer ranges (cylinder choke). A modified choke falls in between full and cylinder. The HG-105D can use either a 5-round or 10-round polymer magazine. There is a photograph of a Safari HG-105M in Ukrainian service with an extended “banana” magazine that looks to hold at least 15 rounds. There is a picatinny rail on top of the weapon for optics and it comes standard with flip-up sights. Being semi-automatic, it fires as fast as the operator can pull the trigger. Other features include a reversible charging handle and a height-adjustable cheek rest.
At a full choke, the typical effective range for a shotgun is 150 feet or 45 meters. This is often good enough to engage a FPV drone that requires contact with the target in order to detonate. Likewise, it can be effective to tackle smaller drones which are used for bomb drops or reconnaissance. Of course, regardless, it requires the shotgun wielder to actually spot the drone in order to engage it as some drones are quite quiet until they are almost on top of the target.
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