[gattr]

Remember the "Black Mirror" episode "Metalhead"? (If not, check it out, no spoilers here.) I'm afraid we'll see something like this in the not-too-distant future.

Now, a squad of soldiers, or even just one experienced rifleman, would prob. dispatch of such a threat quickly. But against (at most poorly armed) civilians it would be an all too effective terror/area denial weapon.

[matheusmoreira]

Love that episode. The relentlessness of those drones is terrifying. I hope we civilians will have countermeasures against robots like those when the time comes...

Another interesting piece of fiction: Horizon Zero Dawn. AI robots armed to the teeth, fueled by biomass, capable of reproduction via onboard factories. They had to reset the planet.

[gattr]

Very similarly, the movie "Screamers" (I liked it more than Dick's original novelette). Hopefully, no one will decide to really seed a continent/planet with autonomous "oh, we can control them just fine" killer bots.

[bluGill]

If it actually becomes a problem, I start carrying my shotgun everywhere, but... Even in the US, most Americans aren't particularly good with a shotgun. Enough of us that most places could have a number of people that they just call. Wake up right now and get out because you might need to shoot something, but it's a dangerous job and I really hope that it never comes down to that.

[beachy]

There's a video of a Finnish clay target champion taking on drones with a shotgun.

The first one gets him because he's unfamiliar with their flight paths.

After that he does better but it clearly shows that you'd have to be an expert to take down a drone with a shotgun.

Also there's a lot of air inside a shotgun spread, so even an on target shot may fail to disable a drone.

[bluGill]

I'm reasonably good with clay targets. I would expect that if I was actually asked to take on drones I would need to do some practice on drones before I'd be good at them too. Drones are more expensive than clay targets but they're not particularly expensive and considering the situation I'd be willing to pay the price of a few drones to learn how to shoot them down down in a controlled setting where it's safe.

Shotguns have very short range: if I'm expected to be taking down a drone with a shotgun things are really bad at that point my life is alread in danger. if I hit I may save my life.

[weard_beard]

There is video out of Ukraine of Russians with shotguns shooting at drones. It’s not very effective.

[slyall]

Remember you are only seeing a selection of the thousands of times this has happened. The drone operating side will release more of the ones where it didn't work.

It does work at least sometimes. If it didn't work at all soldiers would not bother carrying the shotguns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_shotguns_against_drones https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-soldiers-best-chance...

[iugtmkbdfil834]

It would be surprise me if it is really true. It is probably one of the easier type of gun to pick up in terms of skill and shoot accurately. Still, 'shotgun minute men' has a ring to it.