Many years ago as a mate on charter boats here in south Florida, killing sharks with a Pompanette 12ga. bang stick was daily fare (we killed them for the taxidermist, glad that's not very popular any more...). The animals we killed ranged from seven up to over ten feet long and the bangstick made the same exact wound you'd expect from a contact wound with a shotgun... We only used low brass rounds with any kind of shot since the gas, shot, and wadding all went directly into the animal... Funny thing, as a practical matter the shark was quiet for about a minute or so, then began thrashing and snapping for a while - even with a killing head shot. You had to wrestle the animal into the boat pretty quickly while it was still stunned from the shot... Glad I'm not doing that any more (these days I carefully release even the biggest sharks by hand - and usually get the hook back as well...). The one time the bangstick jammed and wouldn't fire we still had to wrestle the shark into the boat (it was a substantial part of our pay...). That incident wasn't any fun at all... after that I made a point of dis-assembling the head (the entire head on the Pomapanette bang stick was brass..) and verfying that the head floated properly onto the firing pin (anything around saltwater tends to corrode without constant maintenance..). That head had a cotter type pin as a safety once you loaded a round - you removed the pin just before using it. Those bangsticks came with a two piece aluminum pole. Most of us just used one section, making it about four feet long with the head at the end...