The scuttlebutt is that steady aim tightens the spread of the shot and a lot of people will tell you (especially via a YouTube comments section if you happen to post a video about shitty shotguns ) that steady aim is absolutely necessary on a shotgun. I really don't think this is, or should be the case.

1. I shouldn't need to burn a perk on making a gun dole out the expected damage within its optimal range. This is not the case with any other gun.

2. Depending on which shotgun you're using, and what range you're engaging people at, you may want a loose pellet spread. If you're using a high-damage gun like the Model, then a wider pellet spread will be more forgiving. If you're using a lower-damage gun like the KSG, then a tighter spread may be usefull in ensuring those OHK. The catch, though, is that if the guy isn't lined up squarely in your crosshairs when hipfiring in that situation, the tighter grouping may cause you to miss with the necessary number of pellets to kill.

Also, you have to factor in poor hit detection and any kind of latency you're experiencing, as it's my opinion that this negatively impacts shotguns more than any other gun in the game.

For what it's worth, I usually don't use steady aim on any of my shotgun setups, and I have ~3,500 Model kills. I prefer to use that perk on Dead Silence, so I can run up close enough to get that killing shot off.

There are youtube videos showing it, I think one of the best I saw was by tmartn possibly? But, steady aim improves the grouping of the shot, catch is, only when you hip fire. So if you put steady aim on unless you want a wide spread for up close stuff sometimes, never ADS. Try it your self in a private match. Take the same shot gun on 2 classes, first time with stalker hip fire a wall, then ADS the wall. Now take the steady aim class and hip fire the wall, then ADS the wall. From what I've heard, and from what seems to be working really well with my model (1100 ish kills) the steady aim class non ADS shot should be the best grouping of the 4, also make sure you're shooting a consitent distance away from your target.

So I wasn't the only one that noticed this. Exact same story, KSG was perfectly fine without Steady Aim. With it I just got hitmarkers after hitmarkers.

Just got Steady Aim and I'm using the Spas this prestige. I'm going to try it out for a few games and then decide what I want to do.

If not chokes, then ammo types would be fun too (excluding the grenade type with the AA-12 as that'd make it overpowered unless the damage is REALLY low) given they can work in a somewhat similar fashion. Like birdshots will have more pellets and a wider spread, but at the cost of overall damage per pellet and so on.