A shotgun fires multiple pellets, so the defining variable with range is pellet dispersion — the pellets travel as one mass close up and scatter into separate wounds at a distance.
Contact shot
- Single large wound.
- Burning and blackening.
- Wad may enter the body.
- Extensive tissue destruction.
Close range
- Single circular wound.
- Blackening and tattooing present.
- Pellets still travel as one mass.
Near range
- Central hole present.
- Beginning separation of pellets.
- Satellite pellet holes appear.
Intermediate range
- Wider pellet dispersion.
- Multiple individual pellet wounds.