A lot of people call bs when I kill them with my shotgun when playing freezetag, so here is exactly how I use mine in the MW2 mod for CoD4. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and may use shotguns different than me, but in my opinion, the way I use mine is pound for pound the best.
For the MW2 Freezetag mod, I use the following class setup.
SPAS-12 with Grip attachment (you lose your Inventory item, but trust me, the Grip makes this shotgun far better than without it)
Pistol is 44 magnum
Frag grenade
Smoke grenade
Perk 1 is Armor Piercing
Perk 2 is Dead Silence
Perk 3 is Stealth
Basically, the combination of the Grip attachment and the Armor Piercing perk gives, effectively, maximum lethal range (considering enemy body armor). The Armor Piercing perk also grants the 44 mag a one-shot kill at any range also. Dead Silence muffles 70 percent of player movement, since I like to be quiet and flank. The Stealth perk is vital for running and gunning. It protects you from showing up on radar (UAV), Sentry Guns (unless you shoot an unsilenced weapon within the Sentry's range), helicopters, you don't trip claymores or bouncing betties, and you are not targeted with a red square by Predator missiles or other aerial killstreaks.
As far as how I can shoot my shotgun so fast, despite being a pump action shotgun, it is simple. Most noobs accuse me of using a weapon switch bind or a script. I have never used one of these because I consider that cheating. All you have to do, and this takes a lot of practice, is to shoot and hold down your fire key while spamming your change weapon key in quick increments of two. Essentially, it allows you to force the pump of the shotgun so you can shoot again. If you can master that, I am also able to hold down my W key at the same time to continue moving forward while shooting and guiding myself with my mouse. The Double Tap perk allows you to shoot faster as well, but in most cases when your oponent has body armor, either by perk or deathstreak, often times you need to shoot them twice to kill (and you don't have time for that).
If you plan on making a shotgun class on the MW2 server, I recommend using the bottom of the two classes, since the top shotgun class' perk one defaults back to the Stopping Power perk after almost every death (at least when you try to use Armor Piercing).
BONUS
As far as what killstreaks I use, I mainly use the following:
3-Killstreak UAV
4-Killstreak SAM Turret
8-Killstreak B-2 Spirit
I don't like using "spawn-protection" killstreaks like RC-XD, Predator Missiles, Smartbombs, AGM Reapers, and AC130s because I feel that hiding behind spawn protection other than when you first spawn after death is cheap. I often get as many, if not more, defrosts as people who use RC-XDs, etc. There are a lot of cowards that use spawn protection to get behind you and knife you, etc, followed by taunting, that I feel takes no skill, despite their false sense of accomplishment. UAV is a great alternative to RC-XDs because most people don't use Stealth, and it tells me where campers and cowards are hiding. SAM Turrets are great for shooting down killstreaks, and I think they are really cool and I like their animation. Lastly, I love dropping carpetbombs with the B-2 with the UAV telling me where to drop it. Lastly, I use the Smoke grenade to help me get across open spaces, and I use the Frag grenade so I can cook them and gauge distances for where they explode.
This was a long rant, but if you would like any advice, I'd be happy to help anyone trying to learn how to use shotguns. I did not mention the M1014 shotgun on this post, but I can give advice for how to use one too. I feel the SPAS-12 is the better weapon, that's all, and I prefer pump action shotguns.
V/R,
RANDALL
