Explosive shot gun or anything with aoe effect is well over powered.

But don't forget you can mod other guns to become shotguns. The lazer rifle with beam splitter for example...

They count as single shot rifles, I prefer the long barrel with the full stock on my double barrel, hits enemies from a reasonable distance and has a tighter hip fire which I like.

yes, it's the explosive perk that is making your shotgun relevant, if you are on survival.

Again, on normal difficulty, the shotgun is fine. One survival, the explosive shotgun is the only one that will deal any damage and a 2 shot rifle will out perform it.

To the people who are "making it work"...

Yeah, you can make anything work... you could make an unarmed build work in this game, because it is a really easy game once you have power armor.

But if you want the best loadout, "2 shot" rifles with silencers and the "Ninja" and "Sandman" perks are going to be by far the most efficient weapons for killing your enemies the most quickly and efficiently.

I was planning on doing a explosive and shotgun build myself. Rifleman effects shotguns at least it say so in the tips during the loading screen.