Birdshot can dismember you at close range. Shotgun injuries can be devastating.
I remember skeet shooting in a quarry pit. We lined up the beer bottles we found scattered around the pit, and shot them one by one, the entire glass bottle vaporized and turned to dust, leaving the base of the bottle intact on the milkcrate. it was formative to see as a teenager. i had a healthy fear of the business end of that shotgun.