/vr/ - Retro Games

>>5320768
There's a historical aspect to this too:
Back during the Vietnam War, when the US would start using the 40x46mm grenades and the M79, initially someone who was using one would be equipped with just the M79 and his sidearm, he wouldn't be carrying an M16 because he was carrying a launcher and grenades instead.

So this brings up a couple of issues, mainly that when its not time for him to launch grenades, the grenadier will just be sitting with his thumb in his butt and not really be able to contribute much to a fight, he can't be a rifleman and he has pretty limited options to defend himself.
Someone had the idea of; "Well, it kind of looks and handles a bit like a shotgun, why not give him some buckshot shells so he can be more useful?", so a 40mm buckshot shell, the M576, was developed. Contrary to what it sounds like at first, this wasn't some kind of giant shotgun shell putting out a wall of lead, it's more or less the payload and power of a pretty garden variety shotgun shell, only sized to fit in a 40mm launcher.
Turns out, this wasn't really that good of a solution, because it's just a couple of needlessly large and bulky shotgun shells (I also imagine they had ridiculous spread, given that the bore of the grenade launcher is rifled, and doesn't have the choke that a shotgun would have to tighten down shot patterns), and you'd be HOPELESSLY outranged by anyone with something bigger than a pistol.

Eventually, the underbarrel mounted launcher became a standardized thing, the M203, which could be mounted underneath a regular M16 rifle, acting as the launcher's grip and stock, and also still being a rifle. Now, a grenadier could also be a rifleman, which makes him MUCH more useful to a squad.
The idea of a shotgun shell adapter, or a multiple small cartridge kind of adapter, sort of lets you play around with how that kind of "buckshot" solution was, getting a feel for it, and also kind of just having fun with it.