Poll: What weapons will you use in a zombie apocalypse?

[Sidiron]

Having read many many zombie stories and books, including having just finished re-reading World War Z, melée is definitely the way to go.
Firearms require a level of proficiency in their use to be able to score headshots, which being a Brit, where all my firearm experience has been .22 rifles on a range and an air-rifle of the same in the fields, is something I probably wont be able to manage consistently, especially facing a whole neighbourhood of ravenous revenants. Also availability is another issue both of the weapons and of ammo, yet again being in Britain where we don't have 20 weapons in a 20 m radius. (j/k )
Melée does require some upper body strength which is somewhat lacking at present but after a couple of hours in the post-apocalypse am sure there will be plenty of practice possibilities.
Since in Britain there are an abundance of cricket bats, tennis rackets, golf clubs, snooker cues. If worse comes to the worst, we could even start using wickets as weaponry. Haha.

 

[frizzlebyte]

Melee weapons of some type. We have a lot of gardening tools lying around, so, provided I had time to go get them, I'd be set. I'd love to have a shotgun, though. It's got to be handy at least a few times. And, living in the USA, I'd be able to get access to one.

The one thing that grinds my gears is that everyone seems to assume when talking about extreme survival situations (and not just zombie apocalypses, either) is that they will be able to stay calm long enough to actually *get* a weapon and the rest of their crap together before they are destroyed themselves.

And then, there's always the smarty-pants "Well, we'll just go to the nearest army base and get some guns and food!" crowd. You ever tried to sneak into an army base before, sport? Yeah, I don't think a zombie apocalypse is going to make those soldiers any more keen to have a civvie storm their base looking for the nearest gun and food rations.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

Machete/baseball bat and a handgun.

 

[DugMachine]

Both!

A shotgun for spread and they do brutal damage up close. If any machine gun it would have to be a mounted one with a large caliber bullet for insane spray and pray.

As for melee weapons, no blades, go with very blunt objects. Large hammers, heavy axes, baseball bats, shovels.

 

[Ytomyth]

My biggest problem would be no access to guns. Would I stumble upon one in my travels, I'd take it and it would be my first weapon of choice (taking the ammunition into account o/c).

But for functionality a melee weapon would most likely be better; (probably) more silent, no ammo, easily accessible and a work-out on top of it. =D

 

[Rottweiler]

I put 'other', because defending yourself in a zombie apocalypse is never one item/weapon/tactic.

I would use a firearm, due to the damage and range capability of a firearm over any comparable melee weapon.

However, there will always be times where a firearm is unusable or less efficient- for example, if the gunshot would alert others, a melee weapon is more efficient *in that situation*. Heck, if you have to reload and a zombie is too close, you want a secondary option.

Plus, there's an entire separate category of weaponry- traps. As the old saying goes, you have to sleep sometime...and you don't want a random zombie to interrupt your nap.

Thing is, you'll always want a combination. No matter what your level of skill with a melee weapon, you want a stand-off weapon at least some of the time. No one weapon or tactic will work 100% of the time.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Screw that, I'd take a goddamned TANK! Even if I run out of ammo I can still squish the zombies under my mighty treads.

What about gas? Those things guzzle metric tons of the stuff.

Didn't see my most recent post on this thread, did you?

 

[veloper]

Depends on the type of zombie.

Romero type zombies are slow but tend to find you eventually whatever you're doing, so noise is less of an issue here. You need to destroy their brains to stop them, so headshots are the way.
D&D 3E zombies are resistant to piercing damage, so you'll want a slashing melee weapon, like a sword.
Walking dead zombies sense with their weak eyes and ears, so loud noises are bad. They aren't particularly strong, so even a knife works if it's two survivors sneaking up on one zombie. Loud weapons are for when the horde detects you.

A brisk walk in the other direction also works well around these zombies.

Against the infected of L4D, survivors don't stand much of chance so it doesn't matter.

 

[Mathurin]

Look here people.

full power firearms like a mosin nagant have a significant recoil, shoot a lot of zombies and your shoulder will hurt
Besides, for zombies you dont need that much firepower (unless you need the range)

Youll want to use a .22 rimfire.

The humble 22 is commonly used in a childs first gun
Advantages:
Super low recoil (feels like an airgun)
Tiny rounds, you can carry 500 rounds in the same space as 50 rifle rounds
Its everywhere, every gun store and wal-mart has thousands of rounds on a shelf.
Subsonic rounds are available (think silenced firearm without the hard to find silencer)


Its essentially the "just enough" round, just enough power to destroy the brain, but not so much that extended firing will hurt your shoulder, and the report is mild enough to draw fewer zombies.

Disadvantages
Low power, a headshot is the only shot that counts, even on humans, carry a sidearm of higher caliber.

Those looking for range, the 22 will easily do headshots at 50-100 yards in a half decent rifle. it also chambers in pistols for the oh shit moments.


Suggested firearms
Marlin rifle in any form for long range, they make sweet shooters.
Ruger 10/22 with a bullpup stock for fast paced action, 30 rd mags are easy to find, stock up.
Double action revolver with subsonics for indoor and silent work, pick up an expensive one after the apocolypse, they are smoother.


As for peeps drooling over the katana, unless you have training skip it for a falchion, a rough and ready hack and slash weapon for the amateur from medival european history, combines the power of the axe with a broader blade for use on humans. You arent fencing with the zombies, so leave the fine cutlery at home next to the tea set.

 

[spartan231490]

I think its because of the sheer speed and efficiency of guns. Sure the bow is more silent but it requires more skill, has smaller range, and kills stuff a lot slower.

Bows actually don't require that much skill over guns (it really comes down to basic positioning and due practice). I'm experienced with both a .22 rifle and a compound recurve bow, and considering the zombie apocalypse as a weapons setting the bow just makes more sense in the long run. Guns may have more fire speed, but that's very rarely going to see use as just spraying rounds into your undead target will mean that you're just wasting bullets. Aimed shots are the only way to ensure your target goes down efficiently, and seeing as most people aren't accurate with most firearms past 50 feet, range doesn't really come into the equation either (unless of you have a sniper rifle, but that brings a whole other mess of factors into play). And lets face it, when the zombie apocalypse comes around, gun stores are going to be among the first places raided for supplies. Ammo WILL become scarce, and every round you miss with a gun is one you can't put into a zombie to save yourself. The simple fact that you can collect your arrows after combat (or easily build new ones if you can't recover the ones you've fired) means that you'll be able to fight your enemy from range long after a gun's ammo would run out.

I don't know where people get this illusion that guns are hard to use accurate. I can and have taught people how to hit a head sized target at 100 yards 7/10 times in less than 10 minutes. It's easy. Even free hand with iron sights your going to hit that same target just as often at 50 yards. Are you talking about handguns? those are kinda hard to learn to shoot, but it would still take less than an hour to learn how to hit a target reliably at 50 yards, probably half that time.

But here's the thing: How many people of the 6.7 billion on this planet are trained with firearms? A whole lot less than those who aren't. That means being able to find someone who can preperly teach is going to be a slim prospect depending on where you are in the world (so most people are going to half to self teach and we both know that's going to be rife with trial and error)

And while yes practice makes perfect, training with a gun unfortunately provides 2 major problems. 1) however much of the ammo you use for training is going to be ammo that you can't use on a legitimate target (and as I've already established, in the Zombpocalypse ammunition is going to become scarce as the factories that produce them stop functioning due to a high concentration of eaten brains) an 2) every shot expended has the potential to draw zombies towards you, and I'd rather not have the undead attack whilst I'm taking a nap after a long hard practice session.

However with a bow and arrow you can practice all day long with no worry for expending resources or that you'll draw distant zombies towards you. In the long run is just more practical.

Also, arrows are harder to make than you think, especially if you're using a common compound bow. A compound bow won't fire a wooden arrow very well, the extra weight leads to a much slower arrow speed. Also, while making the shaft is easy, you still need a head sharp and hard enough to go through skull, which means stone(and very few types of stone make good points) or metal(which requires massive amounts of heat to shape). Also, putting fletching on an arrow is hard, very hard. There's a reason that back in the day, people were payed to make arrows instead of everyone just making their own. They are time consuming and difficult to make.

Compared to trying to making bullets they are a breeze. Making rounds requires that you know how to smith and at least have a good amount of knowledge in chemistry to be able to make gunpowder (Again asuming you can find the ingredients for it). Besides, I've made arrows before during my scout years, and while they don't hold a candle to modern arrows, they can at least hit the target with some degree of accuracy if you have experience with bows (and a crappy arrow is still better than no bullets). And most of the materials you need for them are pretty easy to find in most countries.

Again it really comes down to the long term. Would you rather have a really good weapon for the first few months, or a decently good weapon for the entire ordeal?

I wouldn't want to get up close I'd be afraid of getting their blood on me and catching the disease after beating them with a bat or something. I'd just stay hidden somewhere with a sniper rifle. Probably make a game out of it.

Ever thought about using a mask from paint-balling? They would prevent virtually any amount of blood from getting in/around you eyes, nose, and mouth.

By the way, I can tell you right off that won't work. those masks are designed to allow the player to breathe whilst being able to take the primary force of a paintballball. I've taken way too many shots to the face and tasted way too much of the stuff inside to not know that those masks don't stop spray and splatter for shit.

Besides, paintball shops are pretty rare in comparison to more readily available equivalents. In both my hometown and the city I'm currently residing in there is only one paintball shop apiece, and one of them is smack dab downtown (a place no sane Z-survivor would want to go to).

Honestly the best bet for face protection against splatter is ski goggles and some fabric from a wind jacket (worn kinda like a scarf on your face from shoulders up as to prevent lower angle splatter). They don't let liquids seep through and they're light enough to wear for extended periods of time uninterrupted.

I wasn't arguing against bows, I was pointing out that it's very easy to learn how to use a firearm. I imagine more people know how to use a gun than how to use a bow. Also, without someone to teach you, you might never learn how to use a bow, so many people don't even know enough of the basics to ever get it right. You know how many people I've let shoot my bow who try and grip the arrow between the thumb and fore-finger? Most of them actually. And then they try to draw it with their arms instead of their back. And guns are much easier to get headshot accurate. I've been shooting with my bow for 8 years, I wouldn't trust myself to hit a head-sized target at more than 15 yards(don't get me wrong, I'm still taking it with me, but still). All in all, if you don't know what you're doing with either, and you have access to both, a firearm will do you a lot more good than a bow and arrow.

Bullets are easier and faster to make than arrows, though you won't ever run out of supplies to make arrows. Again, I'm not arguing against bow and arrow, I would use them myself, I'm just saying that firearms are the better choice for most people because they are easier to learn to use, and you will be a lot more accurate at longer ranges even if you have no idea what you're doing. Also, it depends on your situation. While yes, you would theoretically run out of ammo eventually, in my area, there are so many more .22 bullets than there are people that even if 3 of them were fired for each person that died, I think you would still run out of people and zombies before you ran out of ammo, and that's not even counting the higher caliber rounds and the potential to reload.

As to the paint-ball masks, you must use a very different mask from me, I've never gotten so much as a fleck inside my mask. yes they are designed so you can breath but those gaps are small and if the incoming liquid is larger than the gap it will usually stick to the mask instead of landing on your face. Also remember, the paint from a paint-ball is moving with much more force than any blood from a zombie would, I doubt blood would get even into your mask. Also, any protection is better than no protection, I'm still advocating long range firearms as a primary weapon of choice.

 

[spartan231490]

my Mosin and it's bayonet. i have about 400 rounds, plus about 400 empty cases and the materials needed to reload about 800 cases. that, combined with just how common 7.62x54r is, makes me think i'll be ok.

Dude, where do you live? I'm a gun nut and I'd never even heard of this round, you don't see it much in rural America.

i'm from Virginia.

it's a rifle round from the Russian Empire. it was made for the Mosin-Nagant, but it's also used in Soviet and Russian sniper rifles and some machine guns. it's EXTREMELY common because the Soviets made millions of Mosins before, during, and after WW2. you can buy them in "spam cans" of about 450 for about $80.

I googled it, still surprised that they're common in the USA, what with all the cold war BS not so very far behind it many people are still squiemish about buying russian anything, and as far as I can tell only one non-russian gun was made fore it, the winchester model 1895.
Honestly, I'd take a 30-06 over that any day, I bet the ammo is more common in more places, and it has significantly more power and range(not that you need that in the zombie apocalypse, I'm just talking about in general here).

Still, I'm happy I heard about it. I wonder if my gun collecting friend has one? If not he'll be excited to find a relatively common ammo type he doesn't have.

 

[Whateveralot]

My charisma.

Alright, maybe this won't prove such a big success. But I'm rather much a fan of digging in somewhere for the nights and moving during the daylight. Or the other way around, depends on them being nocturnal or not.

I'm pretty sure that in case of emergency, I'll use a machete, big knife or any other mostly stealthy weapon.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

I would force them to read through every 'zombie apocalypse weapon' thread we've ever had on these forums.

Some might say that would be to cruel.

 

[Lev The Red]

my Mosin and it's bayonet. i have about 400 rounds, plus about 400 empty cases and the materials needed to reload about 800 cases. that, combined with just how common 7.62x54r is, makes me think i'll be ok.

snip

snip.

I googled it, still surprised that they're common in the USA, what with all the cold war BS not so very far behind it many people are still squiemish about buying russian anything, and as far as I can tell only one non-russian gun was made fore it, the winchester model 1895.
Honestly, I'd take a 30-06 over that any day, I bet the ammo is more common in more places, and it has significantly more power and range(not that you need that in the zombie apocalypse, I'm just talking about in general here).

Still, I'm happy I heard about it. I wonder if my gun collecting friend has one? If not he'll be excited to find a relatively common ammo type he doesn't have.

the gun community doesn't care about the cold war. a good rifle or bullet is good regardless of where it came from.

.30-06 rounds are WAAAAY more expensive than 54r; generally around ¢50-$1 a round. 54r goes for about ¢15-¢20 a round if you buy milsurp, which is extremely common and can be bought on the internet in bulk. also, their energy on impact is about the same (or high enough on both to not really make a difference). the biggest difference is .30-06 has a higher velocity, which makes it louder, which would not be very helpful.

mosins, the rifle the round was made for, are also extremely common and extremely cheap, generally around $75-$130 depending on which model you buy. older ones (91/30s) are the most common, the least expensive, and often considered the best because of when they were made. i'd take a mosin over a .30-06 any day. they're cheaper, easier to maintain, and ammo is cheaper and more abundant.

 

[spartan231490]

my Mosin and it's bayonet. i have about 400 rounds, plus about 400 empty cases and the materials needed to reload about 800 cases. that, combined with just how common 7.62x54r is, makes me think i'll be ok.

snip

snip.

I googled it, still surprised that they're common in the USA, what with all the cold war BS not so very far behind it many people are still squiemish about buying russian anything, and as far as I can tell only one non-russian gun was made fore it, the winchester model 1895.
Honestly, I'd take a 30-06 over that any day, I bet the ammo is more common in more places, and it has significantly more power and range(not that you need that in the zombie apocalypse, I'm just talking about in general here).

Still, I'm happy I heard about it. I wonder if my gun collecting friend has one? If not he'll be excited to find a relatively common ammo type he doesn't have.

the gun community doesn't care about the cold war. a good rifle or bullet is good regardless of where it came from.

.30-06 rounds are WAAAAY more expensive than 54r; generally around ¢50-$1 a round. 54r goes for about ¢15-¢20 a round if you buy milsurp, which is extremely common and can be bought on the internet in bulk. also, their energy on impact is about the same (or high enough on both to not really make a difference). the biggest difference is .30-06 has a higher velocity, which makes it louder, which would not be very helpful.

mosins, the rifle the round was made for, are also extremely common and extremely cheap, generally around $75-$130 depending on which model you buy. older ones (91/30s) are the most common, the least expensive, and often considered the best because of when they were made. i'd take a mosin over a .30-06 any day. they're cheaper, easier to maintain, and ammo is cheaper and more abundant.

I'll give you that it's cheaper, but the 30-06 has noticeably more energy on impact. It doesn't much matter on the East coast, but the 7.62X54r is virtually identical to a .308, and I know a great many hunters out west who won't even touch a .308 because it just doesn't have enough power. the 30-06 is a 7.62X63 round, which means it has roughly 20% more powder and energy.

As for rifle cost, I don't know about you, but I don't buy my rifles, which I expect to outlive the children I will one day have, based on how cheap they are. And a 30-06 is no more difficult to maintain, and the ammo is more abundant in more places.

 

[The Heik]

Bullets are easier and faster to make than arrows

No they're not. As I've said before, you need to know how to forge and do chemistry just to make a basic bullet (a la the civil war), and so much can go wrong with that if you're not aware of it. If you mix the components of the gunpowder wrong it could either make the bullet barely slide out the barrel or blow up the gun in your face. If the bullet or casing have a dent or errant edge the gun can jam or (again) blow up the gun in your face. Unless you have a lot of very specific and technical knowledge in regards to making a bullet (and hopefully a weapons factory that can make ammunition to the exacting standards of today's more refined weapons) it is completely inadvisable to do so.


As to the paint-ball masks, you must use a very different mask from me, I've never gotten so much as a fleck inside my mask. yes they are designed so you can breath but those gaps are small and if the incoming liquid is larger than the gap it will usually stick to the mask instead of landing on your face. Also remember, the paint from a paint-ball is moving with much more force than any blood from a zombie would, I doubt blood would get even into your mask. Also, any protection is better than no protection, I'm still advocating long range firearms as a primary weapon of choice.[/quote]

Actually there is a psychological thing that occurs when a person has partial protection in that they think that they're fine. When you know that you have no defence against something you do anything possible to avoid such a situation, but when you have something that *might* work against it, the human brain sometimes assumes that it'll be alright against the threat, thereby increasing the actual likelihood of them getting into such situations and getting hurt anyways.

Also you need to remember that blood is not paintball paint. Paintball paint is designed to be heavy and viscous so that when it connects with something the full force of the ball hits and it leaves a nice consistent splat for easy identification in a game. Blood however needs to be fluid enough to move through a constantly shifting human body. That means when it comes out of the body, it tends to mist, so the splatter is far more fine and spread out. And given half a chance it will get through any hole in whatever face protection you have. The only way to ensure it doesn't get into your system is to ensure there's no direct way in ,so something that's waterproof is the way to go (and considering how many people can usually find something like that, it's the far more likely option)

 

[Shemming]

Im in england, so guns arent really an option. So mllee, that was simple.

 

[flaviok79]

Other. Explanation: since zombie lore established that you must destroy the head, or at least, most of their bodies to incapacitate them, and aiming in a frantic run for one?s life is not an aiming friendly situation, I would like scatter damage weapons, like shotguns and flamethrowers. That would certainly open a route for escape, if not completely wiping out the zombies.

 

[spartan231490]

Bullets are easier and faster to make than arrows

No they're not. As I've said before, you need to know how to forge and do chemistry just to make a basic bullet (a la the civil war), and so much can go wrong with that if you're not aware of it. If you mix the components of the gunpowder wrong it could either make the bullet barely slide out the barrel or blow up the gun in your face. If the bullet or casing have a dent or errant edge the gun can jam or (again) blow up the gun in your face. Unless you have a lot of very specific and technical knowledge in regards to making a bullet (and hopefully a weapons factory that can make ammunition to the exacting standards of today's more refined weapons) it is completely inadvisable to do so.

As to the paint-ball masks, you must use a very different mask from me, I've never gotten so much as a fleck inside my mask. yes they are designed so you can breath but those gaps are small and if the incoming liquid is larger than the gap it will usually stick to the mask instead of landing on your face. Also remember, the paint from a paint-ball is moving with much more force than any blood from a zombie would, I doubt blood would get even into your mask. Also, any protection is better than no protection, I'm still advocating long range firearms as a primary weapon of choice.

Actually there is a psychological thing that occurs when a person has partial protection in that they think that they're fine. When you know that you have no defence against something you do anything possible to avoid such a situation, but when you have something that *might* work against it, the human brain sometimes assumes that it'll be alright against the threat, thereby increasing the actual likelihood of them getting into such situations and getting hurt anyways.

Also you need to remember that blood is not paintball paint. Paintball paint is designed to be heavy and viscous so that when it connects with something the full force of the ball hits and it leaves a nice consistent splat for easy identification in a game. Blood however needs to be fluid enough to move through a constantly shifting human body. That means when it comes out of the body, it tends to mist, so the splatter is far more fine and spread out. And given half a chance it will get through any hole in whatever face protection you have. The only way to ensure it doesn't get into your system is to ensure there's no direct way in ,so something that's waterproof is the way to go (and considering how many people can usually find something like that, it's the far more likely option)

Firstly, if you try to fire a modern rifle using black powder, it won't work, and you can't mis-mix black powder in a way that would make it blow the gun up in your face, if you had a muzzel loader to use black powder.


You don't need a forge, where are you getting that? You can melt lead over a camp fire, and brass is reusable several times. You can also scavenge bullets from any caliber to get gunpowder and a similar caliber will provide you with primers. I have already admitted that once you run out of materials such as those arrows are easier, that wasn't the point I was trying to make.

Once more, I am advocating a primary weapon of a firearm to maintain safe distance. If you need to close into melee, any protection is better than no protection. Also, blood is very viscous, several times more so in a body that is no longer living(like a zombie), as blood coagulates it becomes much much more viscous, almost like paste, a paint ball mask would provide decent protection in a form that is designed to stay on your head, instead of something that was cobbled together that might come untied or slide off your face once you start swinging a weapon around and getting all sweaty.