often issued them to a squad's point man. Shotguns were modified for and used in the trench warfare of WWI, in the jungle combat of WWII and the Vietnam War. Shotguns were also used in the Iraq War, being popular with soldiers in urban combat environments. Some U.S. units in Iraq used shotguns with special frangible breaching rounds to blow the locks or hinges off doors when making a surprise entry into a dwelling. Home and personal defense Shotguns are a popular means of home defense for many of the same reasons they are preferred for close-quarters tasks in law enforcement and the military. History Most early firearms, such as the blunderbuss, arquebus, and musket had large diameter, smoothbore barrels, and could fire shot as well as solid balls. A firearm intended for use in wing shooting of birds was known as a fowling piece. The 1728 Cyclopaedia defines a fowling piece as: For example, the Brown Bess musket, in service with the British army from 1722 to 1838, had a 19 mm (.75 inch) smoothbore barrel, roughly the same as a 10-gauge shotgun, and was long, just short of the above recommended 168 cm (5 feet). On the other hand, records from the Plymouth colony show a maximum length of 137 cm (4 feet) for fowling pieces, shorter than the typical musket. Shot was also used in warfare; the buck and ball loading, combining a musket ball with three or six buckshot, was used throughout the history of the smoothbore musket. The first recorded use of the term shotgun was in 1776 in Kentucky. It was noted as part of the "frontier language of the West" by James Fenimore Cooper. With the adoption of smaller bores and rifled barrels, the shotgun began to emerge as a separate entity. Shotguns have long been the preferred method for sport hunting of birds, and the largest shotguns, the punt guns, were used for commercial hunting. The double-barreled shotgun has changed little since the development of the boxlock action in 1875. Modern innovations such as interchangeable chokes and subgauge inserts make the double-barreled shotgun the shotgun of choice in skeet, trap shooting, and sporting clays, as well as with many hunters. As wing shooting has been a prestige sport, specialty gunsmiths such as Krieghoff or Perazzi have produced fancy double-barrel guns for wealthy European and American hunters. These weapons can cost US$5,000 or