A shotgun shell has a polymer wad with a forward shot cup portion and a rearward propellant cup, the wad in a casing, shot in the shot cup, propellant in the propellant cup, and a primer in a head of the casing. The propellant cup having a plurality of fins extending rearwardly that open to a deployed position upon firing and the shot cup having a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially aligned linear slit segments that permit air to circulate and permit expansion of the shot cup.

A shotgun shell has a polymer wad with a forward shot cup portion and a rearward propellant cup, the wad in a casing, shot in the shot cup, propellant in the propellant cup, and a primer in a head of the casing. The propellant cup having a plurality of fins extending rearwardly that open to a deployed position upon firing and the shot cup having a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially aligned linear slit segments that permit air to circulate and permit expansion of the shot cup.

A projectile delivers a pellet payload to an increased range with increased accuracy. A two piece aerodynamically stable pusher consists of a body and tailpiece. This pusher fits into a standard 40 mm cartridge case by means of three sabots. To seal against combustion gases, a three piece split rotating band is employed.

A wad or shot cup having a forward cylinder portion receiving a payload and a rear cylinder portion receiving a charge of propellant. One or more latent deceleration features can be formed in a surface of the sidewall extending along the rear cylinder portion. The latent deceleration features can be spaced apart from a rearward end of the shot cup and can be deployed to form deceleration petals after the shot cup is fired from a firearm. A series of longitudinal slits can be formed in the forward cylinder portion so that a portion of the sidewall expands radially adjacent the longitudinal slits after the shot cup is fired from a firearm for urging at least a portion of the payload to exit the forward cylinder portion.

A shotgun shell has a polymer wad with a forward shot cup portion and a rearward propellant cup, the wad in a casing, shot in the shot cup, propellant in the propellant cup, and a primer in a head of the casing. The propellant cup having a plurality of fins extending rearwardly that open to a deployed position upon firing and the shot cup having a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially aligned linear slit segments that permit air to circulate and permit expansion of the shot cup.

A shotgun shell has a polymer wad with a forward shot cup portion and a rearward propellant cup, the wad in a casing, shot in the shot cup, propellant in the propellant cup, and a primer in a head of the casing. The propellant cup having a plurality of fins extending rearwardly that open to a deployed position upon firing and the shot cup having a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially aligned linear slit segments that permit air to circulate and permit expansion of the shot cup.

A sub-projectile carrier which uses aerodynamic drag to delay the release of a payload in a tailorable manner to control the spread of the payload over a desired range. A 40 mm shotgun style cartridge is shown for use for counter unmanned aerial systems, and for short range anti-personnel applications.

A shotgun shell has a polymer wad with a forward shot cup portion and a rearward propellant cup, the wad in a casing, shot in the shot cup, propellant in the propellant cup, and a primer in a head of the casing. The propellant cup having a plurality of fins extending rearwardly that open to a deployed position upon firing and the shot cup having a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially aligned linear slit segments that permit air to circulate and permit expansion of the shot cup.

An improved shotshell of the type having a hull, a head at the proximal end, propellant disposed in the hull, a wad disposed in the hull distal to the propellant, and a load disposed in the hull in distal to the wad. The improvement comprises the load including a plurality of individual shot, at least a portion of which are at least partially surrounded by a friable material that breaks up upon the firing of the shell to release to the shot and results in a reduced rate of dispersion of the plurality of individual shot compared to cartridges without the friable material.

A shotgun shell has a polymer wad with a forward shot cup portion and a rearward propellant cup, the wad in a casing, shot in the shot cup, propellant in the propellant cup, and a primer. The rearward propellant cup portion having enhanced fin deployment such that the shells are operative with shotguns with no chokes, shotguns with ported chokes, and shotguns with conventional chokes. The forward shot cup portion has axial slits that are sized to preclude shot from passing therethrough while providing sufficient air circulation to provide compaction relief of the shot pack. The enhancement may include gussets on the fins, axially movable disks to engage cam surfaces on the fins and urge them outwardly, and fins that have reduced bending regions compared to prior art wads.