that's what the other guns are for. Save the shotgun for extremely close range... as close as you can get without them eating you. Snipe the longest range stuff if you can. Use the handgun or the smg (if you've got one) for midrange. You'd be surprised how much punch the other weapons you're running across can pack.

It's all about ammo economics. They'll hand you the ammo you need, as long as you're shooting everything in the head, and upgrading or replacing your weapons regularly.

Lately I've been trying to finish out mastering every mantra for every character in Digital Devil Saga, because DDS2, Xenosaga ep 2, and La Pucelle are all coming on monday. Also, for kicks, trying to unlock celestial weapons and max out the sphere grid in FFX. But I don't think I'll finish, I'm down to "minigame" weapons (chocobo racing, hours of blitzball, lightning dodge, butterfly catching) and luck nodes to fill in (and killing Greater Sphere and Earth Eater over and over and over again just doesn't appeal to me much either).

I'm less than 10 million gil away from mastering the DDS mantras -- serph is already done, Gale is on his last mantra, Heat and Argilla have one more to buy each, Cielo has 2 more to buy. Still haven't beaten Hitoshura, but I've seen him hit my whole party for 6000+, which is entertaining, being 6 times more than I have, and 2x more than the best hits I've ever dealt to anything.