40mm Dart ammunition uses flechette ammunition to penetrate cover and inflict damage, rather than fragmentation (as with the 40mm Grenade). This allows a grenade launcher (purpose-built or underslung) to function like a shotgun. It is solely for light cover and antipersonnel use.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
— In-game description
The 40mm Shotgun is a gadget for the Assault class in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
It is simply a canister round that is fired from a 40mm grenade launcher. It is unlocked after getting 11000 points with the Assault class. It is loaded and fired exactly like a grenade, except that no compensation must be made for a ballistic trajectory.
It inflicts very high damage against infantry, and has a slow reload time along with a relatively short effective range. Achieving kills at medium range is possible, but difficult. The 40mm Shotgun deals the most damage of all shotguns and has no damage drop off.
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Battlefield 3
The 40mm Dart (also known as the M320 BUCK/GP-30 DART) is the first unlockable ammo type for the M320 and GP-30 grenade launchers. It often inflicts fatal damage on infantry and flies on a flat trajectory compared to grenades, but is useless against armored vehicles.
The 40mm Dart inflict much more damage than either 12 Gauge Buckshot or 12 Gauge Flechette at any range, but suffers from the launcher's one round capacity. The spread of the flechettes is tighter than on shotguns, with only the SPAS-12 firing flechettes having the same spread.
The AN-94 and the AEK-971 assault rifles can mount the GP-30 DART on their underslung rail but cannot mount the M26 MASS.
It is also worth noting that the M320 retains the same firing sound regardless of the ammunition used, meaning that it can be useful for sneaking up on and assaulting enemies as the sound of an M320 being fired at close range is unlikely to be identified as a threat at close range.
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Battlefield 4
— In-game description
The 40mm Dart is an unlockable ammo type for the M320 and GP-30 grenade launchers. It remains mostly unchanged from its Battlefield 3 counterpart, firing flechette rounds that travel on a flat trajectory compared to the other 40mm ammunition available, and is very lethal to infantry but does no damage to armored vehicles. Its tight spread allows it to be more accurate and cause more damage at range, but it is still hampered by its single round capacity.
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Trivia
Bad Company 2
- When the player switches to their shotgun in Bad Company 2, they flip up the leaf sight on their rifle even though they serve no purpose with the 40mm shotgun.
- The red-orange color of the shell used by the shotgun differs from that of the standard gray shell of the 40mm grenade launcher in Bad Company 2.
- The shotgun in Bad Company 2 actually benefits from Magnum Ammunition, which does not apply to the other underbarrel launchers, as well as Grenade Vest.
- The 40mm shotgun makes any type of sight on the AEK-971 disappear when switched to in Bad Company 2.
Battlefield 3
- The M320 DART is incorrectly referred as the M320 BUCK, this could be due to developers had considered programming a 40mm grenade that fires buckshots, but then decided upon flechettes and forgot to rename it.