Any tips on how to use shotgun? Sometimes when firing it barely does dmg and it takes up all VATS. Do you need to be really close? What enemy types is it good at? Thanks.

I've had the most success when using the shotgun out of VATS. Sawn-offs are great for in-your-face encounters, about 1 to 2 feet. All the other shotguns are very good at about 15 feet. If you can fire the combat shotguns fast, you can suppress and finally kill something out to about 25 feet max.

Ok only tried sawed-off ones and thats what I had trouble with. Will try more out of VATS, thanks

Yeah the sawn-off ones are essentially worthless outside of melee range, but they're quite deadly at low levels when enemies close.

how can people deal with teh way the sawn off is held ???

both hands on the trigger! in real life im pretty sure that would result in the gun smacking teh user in the face or breaking the users fingers :/

Maybe, but in real life a lot of things work very differently than in the game.

Double-Barrel shotgun is much better if you want to use a more classic type of a shotgun.