Weapons in Fallout New Vegas?

Are all guns viable to use in New vegas without having a particularly hard time? I plan to play on easy-normal and I want to use shotguns but everyone says that even with the hunting shotgun I would be gimping myself. I don't care if I'm not doing the best damage or anything like that, I just love using shotguns. Are shotguns really useless late game (on normal) even with And Stay Back and Shotgun Surgeon? Thanks