---
title: "You can practically smell the gunpowder in this intense Marine Corps photo"
date: "2020-01-22"
modified: "2020-01-22"
authors:
  - name: "Paul Szoldra"
    job_title: "Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/paul-szoldra/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/you-can-practically-smell-the-gunpowder-in-this-intense-marine-corps-photo/"
categories:
  - "Marine Corps"
  - "Military Branches"
  - "News"
---

# You can practically smell the gunpowder in this intense Marine Corps photo

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/22600543-1.jpg>)

You can almost smell the gunpowder in the scene captured by a Marine photographer over the weekend, showing a Marine grunt firing a shotgun during non-lethal weapons training.

Sgt. Brandon Bourque, a Marine photographer with U.S. Central Command's Marine-led crisis response task force, captured the intense and, dare I say, *insanely cool* shot on Jan. 18 of a Marine lance corporal blasting a Mossberg M590A 12-gauge shotgun during training in Kuwait.

Our friends at Military Times' Outpost [first](<https://twitter.com/militarytimesop/status/1220119300196859905?s=21>) spotted the photo.

Bourque [uploaded](<https://www.dvidshub.net/image/6030569/non-lethal-but-still-effective>) an entire gallery of photos that showed more of the non-lethal training exercise, with Marines setting up in a Spartan-like phalanx of riot shields before [throwing out pepper grenades](<https://www.dvidshub.net/image/6030559/non-lethal-but-still-effective>) and others firing a non-lethal [sting grenade out of](<https://www.dvidshub.net/image/6030563/non-lethal-but-still-effective>) a shotgun.

The Corps has been using the standard Mossburg 500-series of shotguns since at least the 1980s, [according](<https://www.twz.com/8188/check-out-the-marine-corps-fearsome-looking-upgraded-shotguns>) to The Drive, as well as the Remington 870. The service uses shotguns mainly in a breaching role, although they can also fire rounds filled with non-lethal balls that will certainly ruin someone's day but won't kill them.

[The Marines in the photos](<https://www.dvidshub.net/search/?filter%255Bmember_id_credit%255D=1391673&sort=date>) are from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, based out of Twentynine Palms, California.

## Author
Paul Szoldra was the Editor in Chief of Task & Purpose from October 2018 until August 2022. Since joining T&P, he has led a talented team of writers, editors, and creators who produce military journalism reaching millions of readers each month. He also founded and edits [Duffel Blog](<https://www.duffelblog.com/>), a popular satirical newsletter for the military. Before becoming a journalist in 2013, he served as a Marine infantryman in Afghanistan, Korea, and other areas of the Pacific. His eyes still go up every time a helicopter from Camp Pendleton flies over his office in Southern California.

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