Shotguns are short-range weapons, generally used with small shot (around 11/g). The circular "pattern" of shot spreads and rapidly loses energy as it travels away from the muzzle, so that at very close ranges it is devastatingly explosive (ask any afficionado of violent films) but at ranges of more than 40m the spread is such that small animals can escape through the gaps, or pick up only one or two shot, and survive. At ranges greater than 100m small shot have barely enough energy to penetrate human skin.
Thus the finder of bones with embedded shotgun pellets can make some deductions:
Iron shot has recently replaced lead, so that close inspection can give some idea of the date of shooting.
The distances between the embedded shot, and its penetration, give some idea of range.
The size of the shot used gives some idea of whether the hunter had gone prepared for large or small quarry.
Small healed injuries might be shotgun wounds. Ask your dentist to x-ray the bone !
Fox bones, embedded pellets and pellet holes ringed.
From the left - L scapula, neck vertebra, R lower jaw, R humerus, L femur, L radius
If all these bones are from one individual, it has been shot at least twice, from opposite sides.
