Musical uses? Sure...I always have my A-T shotgun handy when tracking drummers. Point it at their head and tell 'em that if they start dropping beats the "stickboy's gonna get it !"
Seriously, I used a shotgun once on a snare for brush work... OK, but it took a bit of positioning trial-and-error to get it right. This was a fairly unique situation, and I wouldn't do it again.

All the bands I worked with would have just told you to go ahead and pull the trigger!

moonbaby wrote: Musical uses? Sure...I always have my A-T shotgun handy when tracking drummers. Point it at their head and tell 'em that if they start dropping beats the "stickboy's gonna get it !"
Seriously, I used a shotgun once on a snare for brush work... OK, but it took a bit of positioning trial-and-error to get it right. This was a fairly unique situation, and I wouldn't do it again.

My first thought would be using them on more percussive stuff. I doubt mine (AT 8035) could handle a straight on snare hit with a stick. Maybe congas or softer percussion though.
I have ruled out vocals and guitars. I haven't tried them yet, but I don't think it would even be worth the time to plug it in and listen.

The problem for most percussion/drum work is that the polar pattern is SO tight, that it focuses on just one small area. This makes it great for VOs, not so good for a couple of congas...

I've always wanted to try a shotgun mic reversed as a pseudo room mic, by pointing it at the front wall/ceiling/whatever.

You'ld have to have a lot of time, or in depth knowledge of reflection points in your room to avoid it taking a weeks worth of time to find the sweet spot reflections.

Other than that... a shotgun is is pretty much a video/VO mic.

I have a 20" aluminum parabolic dish from an obsoleted small scale microwave system that I've wanted to do that with. It would be a lot easier to find the focal point of something with that shape. (pretty much right where the old LNA would have been)