Should I use the Hand cannon or the Shotgun for close-range combat?

Solution 1:

Shotgun. Always the shotgun.

The benefits include:

• reload that can be interrupted to fire a partially empty clip, with upgrades it becomes crazy fast
• Do damage to a whole bunch of enemies at once - useful in areas where there are many enemies rushing you, and if you use Bucking Bronco to stun them
• Ammo is more plentiful, as far as I could tell
• It's a better panic weapon as it tends to hit a wide area in front of you - you don't have to worry about aiming as much

The Hand Cannon is an OK weapon, and it can sub in for a carbine or machine gun at medium range in a pinch. However, for close quarters, there's nothing quite like the shotgun. I cycled through several medium/long range weapons, but the shotgun was almost always my close range choice. It was the lynchpin of my 1999 Mode run.

Solution 2:

Handcannon all the way, more range, better accuracy, and reloads a lot faster. I wasn't a big fan of the shotgun for the simple fact it doesnt do that great of damage if you're not 10 feet away from your oppent. Handcannon may not be as good for up close and personal compared to the shotgun but if you get a headshot from close up its a kill. The handcannon was my main weapon for my first walkthrough, the main reason it's so much better than the shotgun is that you can use it anytime: short, medium, and long range. Shotgun ammo is more abundant but it's really easy to conserve handcannon ammo.