A "crash-bang" shotgun cartridge assembly has a projectile consisting of a weighty and frangible ballast on its leading edge, a flash-bang charge, and, in the rear, a delay fuse which is lit by the detonation of the propellant charge in the cartridge. The weight of the ballast insures greater stability in flight, and accuracy in targeting, thus extending the range of the crash-bang cartridge. In addition, the weighty and frangible ballast disintegrates into low mass, low energy (and therefore less-lethal) fragments when the flash charge detonates.