GTA 6 double barrel shotgun: the poacher gun in Grassrivers

Grand Theft Auto has carried a double barrel shotgun for most of its life, and GTA 6 looks like no exception. GamesRadar found one by zooming into an official screenshot of poachers hunting in the Grassrivers area, and describes it as an unidentified double-barrelled shotgun.¹

A hunter, an alligator and a full-length barrel

PC Gamer read the same set of screenshots and describes a hunter aiming the shotgun at an alligator, noting that the barrel is clearly full length rather than cut down.² That detail is worth flagging because sawn-off variants have been separate weapons in past Grand Theft Auto games, and PC Gamer raises the obvious question of whether GTA 6 will let you shorten the barrel yourself as a modification.² Nobody has confirmed that, so treat it as a writer's curiosity rather than a feature.²

Where it sits in the wider arsenal

The double barrel is one of at least three shotgun-shaped weapons identified so far, alongside the Moreland 850 that Jason scavenges in the Extended Look and the pump action shotgun Lucia reloads one-handed.¹⁵ Community databases list all three as separate entries with the double barrel modelled on a break-action sporting gun, though those identifications are drawn from screenshots rather than any published Rockstar material.³

Series history

Shotguns have been a standing class in Grand Theft Auto for decades, purchasable at Ammu-Nation and customisable there with attachments, performance upgrades, liveries and tints in GTA 5.⁴ The double barrel in particular has always been the cheap, brutal, two-shots-then-reload option, which is exactly the role a poacher's gun would play in Leonida's wetlands.³⁴

What is not confirmed

• The in-game name and manufacturer. No maker's mark is legible in the screenshot.¹
• Whether a sawn-off variant exists or whether barrel length is a modification.²
• Damage, range, reload time and price. Nothing published.³
• Whether the weapon is buyable or only carried by NPC hunters and poachers.¹²

GTA already has a named 'Double Barrel Shotgun'

This will not be the first time the series uses that exact name. GTA: Chinatown Wars sold a Double Barrel Shotgun, an over-and-under design not based on any specific real gun, for $1,000 once the player unlocked the right Ammu-Nation license.⁶ GTA Online later added its own version as part of the Lowriders: Custom Classics update, this time modeled on a fictional 'Zabala' short-barreled side-by-side and priced at $15,450. Both barrels fire together in a rapid burst, the gun must be reloaded after every two shells, and, unusually for a shotgun, it can be fired one-handed from a moving motorcycle.⁶ A full-length double barrel shotgun, unusable but visible on an Ammu-Nation shelf, even shows up as set dressing as far back as Vice City, showing Rockstar has been drawing this exact silhouette for over two decades before the Grassrivers screenshots.⁶

The real double-barreled shotgun

The real firearm class behind all of this is the break-action double-barreled shotgun, sometimes called a side-by-side or, when the barrels are stacked instead, an over-and-under. Opening the action to load also exposes the breech, so anyone nearby can see at a glance whether the gun is loaded, a safety feature pump and semi-automatic shotguns cannot match as easily.⁸ Because there is no reciprocating mechanism to eject and chamber shells, doubles are more compact than repeating designs, which is part of why they became, and remain, a hunting and sport-shooting staple going back to the 19th century.⁸ Early examples used two separate triggers, one per barrel, a layout later joined by single-trigger versions that fire either barrel from the same pull; both styles are still common today, and either could plausibly be what a poacher's gun in Leonida's wetlands is modeled on.⁸

The sawn-off is this weapon's short cousin

GTA's sawn-off shotguns have effectively always been cut-down double barrels wearing a different name. San Andreas' Sawn-Off Shotgun is modeled on a Stoeger Uplander with the barrel and stock shortened; The Lost and Damned's version is instead based on a sawed-off coach gun, also known as a Lupara; and GTA V's rendition switches basis again to a shortened Mossberg 500.⁹ None of those is the full-length weapon spotted with the Grassrivers poachers, but they share the same twin-barrel, two-shot design, and their history shows Rockstar has drawn on real double-barrel and coach guns for this class in every generation so far.⁹

How the GTA Online version actually performs

GTA Online's own files give its Double Barrel Shotgun a short 30-metre range but let both barrels discharge together in about 0.1 seconds, a burst GTA Wiki notes is statistically closer to the rapid-fire Micro SMG and AP Pistol than to other shotguns.⁶ That speed comes at a cost: with only two shells loaded at once, the gun needs a full reload after every burst, and its in-game description leans into that trade-off, comparing it to a short, sharp blow rather than a sustained weapon of choice.⁶ Whether GTA 6's full-length version, seen so far only in the hands of an NPC poacher rather than a protagonist, will behave anything like that GTA Online build is unknown.⁶¹

What would confirm the details

• A weapon-wheel screenshot naming the gun and showing whether it is sold at Ammu-Nation or only carried by non-player characters.¹
• Gameplay footage of Jason or Lucia actually firing it, since every sighting so far belongs to an NPC poacher.¹²
• Confirmation of whether a separate sawn-off variant exists alongside it, the way GTA V split its Pump Shotgun and Sawed-Off Shotgun into two distinct weapons.⁹