Russkie
07-22-2008, 10:19 PM
Yes, its that time again. KNOW YOUR ZOMBIE FACTS!
For a good, reliable weapon, you should choose something with ammunition readily available. We'd all like to run around firing G-11s from the hip and bustin caps with dual-Desert Eagles, but it's just not economically feasible. Why? Lemme 'splain.
Availability:
While we all know how cool we look wearing fatigues, a leather jacket, a web vest and carrying an M-16, a Desert Eagle, and a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, we must understand that to survive, we must drop a bit of coolness for a bit more survivability. That means chucking out that worthless Desert Eagle (#1, most people inexperienced with firearms couldn't handle the recoil, #2 you will be hard-pressed to find the .50 ACP in even speciality gun stores, and #3 the gun is a raving POS). The majority of ammunition you will find lying around will be of the following calibers:
.22
9mm
.45 ACP
.223/5.56
.40
.38
12 gauge
.308/7.62x51mm/7.62NATO (to a lesser extent)
Why is this? Well, quite simply, we've all seen how the law reacts to an emergency: They mess things up, they fumble the ball time and time again, and they will eventually wind up in getting themselves killed. This is bad for them, but good for us survivors. You see, friends and neighbors, if we do manage to survive past the initial outbreak, the Night of the Living Dead Scenario, and make it to the next stage--the Dawn of the Dead phase--we are in prime position to pick up a lot of hardware that the police will no longer need. If we HAVE been running around blasting .50 ACP at zombies and ruining our wrists and such, now we can throw them away in favor of a better weapon, like a 9mm or, better yet, a .45 caliber. Either bullet will make a zombie fall down and stay down for good, both are relatively simple to learn to operate and handle, and with the overabundance of ammunition lying around, you can actually teach others how to fire them.
Now here comes a tricky part: See, the .223 and 5.56mm are ALMOST the same round, but you can ruin certain guns by firing the wrong one. Bushmaster firearms are all interchangeable between .223 and 5.56, though other brands are not. If your carbine/assault rifle of choice has .223/5.56 written somewhere on it, you're good to go; if not, read your weapon (it is usually on either the barrel or the magazine well) to decide which brand of ammunition is best for use.
I included .22 here for one simple reason: Hunting small game. It will not always be feasible to go into a supermarket and grab a few cans of food. Now and then you might be called upon to get your own food. I would not personally ever put my survival in the hands of so small a caliber as that, however I would also want to conserve my zombie-killing ammunition for the zombies, rather than wasting it on a squirrel.
Ease of Use/Maintenance:
On the movies, no one ever cleans their gun, nor do they ever seem to suffer for the lack. In the real world, the worst weapon in the world is the one that doesn't work when you need it to, and the best is one with a clean interior and all the working parts in order. There are many websites located around the net where one can find proper cleaning techniques for your arsenal. This is one site I found with 30 seconds of searching:
http://www.brooksidepress.org/Products/Ope...LIARIZATION.htm
If you can clean a GLOCK, you can clean just about anything. Handguns are relatively simple to clean and keep in good working order, as are most rifles. An AK-47 is one of the easiest weapons to fire, clean, and maintain in working order, however finding ammunition could become a problem.
Keep your weapons clean now, and you will get into the habit for when the shit hits the fan (SHTF).
Melee Weapons:
Go outside and get a baseball bat. Swing it as hard as you can against a medicine ball. Now repeat. Again and again and again, until you can't any more. I'll wait.
OK, now that you've swung like 5 times, what does that tell you? That's right, melee weapons take a lot out of you. Sure, it looks easy on the movies, but this is the real world. If you really must have a melee weapon, I suggest something long and pointy to stab with, not something to use as a club. Unless you want to be bait, then that's fine.
(Written by Arcades057)
For the ease of use, I agree; the AK-47 is a far simpler weapon, one that was made to give to farmers and peasants without any training that they could use at once and keep in working order with little cleaning.
However, when we come down to range and accuracy, the M-16 weapon system takes the lead by a fair margin. The AK-47's maximum range is only 150-400 meters (I say the lower number, though some will argue) while the M-16 weapon system's maximum range is around 460-550 meters... quite a bit farther. When you're dealing with zombies, which should DEFINTELY be dispatched at long-range, the M16 is the only choice.
I do, however, give the AK-47 weapon system the advantage when dealing with a short-range human threat, especially when multiple targets come into play. The AK-47 can easily be handled, even in rapid-fire (NOTE: I did not say automatic fire) mode. The M-16/M4 are better for dealing with targets at longer range, meaning there should always be a combination of weapons in any living dead environment; all parties should also be well-versed on their roles and not attempt to be neroes or take shots that they shouldn't, thereby putting the rest of the group in danger.
As to the availability of the 7.62x39mm round: It is most usually readily available in gun stores, possibly even Walmarts; however, if you believe for one moment that gun stores and Walmarts will NOT be the focal points of many raids and scavenging operations, then you are sadly mistaken.
I did not include the 7.62x39mm round in my "easily available" ammunition section due to the fact that the majority of our ammunition and equipment should be coming from the bodies of the police and military after the initial outbreak. Some of us ( /me whistles nonchalantly) have saved up many thousands of rounds of .223/5.56 and 7.62x39mm for just this sort of occasion, so we could potentially pick and choose our weapons based on personal likes/dislikes to a greater degree than others.
But don't worry: I have more than enough to go around, fellow Pacificans, so we will be killing zombies together for a long time to come.
(A reply from Arcades057 to an idiot)
For a good, reliable weapon, you should choose something with ammunition readily available. We'd all like to run around firing G-11s from the hip and bustin caps with dual-Desert Eagles, but it's just not economically feasible. Why? Lemme 'splain.
Availability:
While we all know how cool we look wearing fatigues, a leather jacket, a web vest and carrying an M-16, a Desert Eagle, and a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, we must understand that to survive, we must drop a bit of coolness for a bit more survivability. That means chucking out that worthless Desert Eagle (#1, most people inexperienced with firearms couldn't handle the recoil, #2 you will be hard-pressed to find the .50 ACP in even speciality gun stores, and #3 the gun is a raving POS). The majority of ammunition you will find lying around will be of the following calibers:
.22
9mm
.45 ACP
.223/5.56
.40
.38
12 gauge
.308/7.62x51mm/7.62NATO (to a lesser extent)
Why is this? Well, quite simply, we've all seen how the law reacts to an emergency: They mess things up, they fumble the ball time and time again, and they will eventually wind up in getting themselves killed. This is bad for them, but good for us survivors. You see, friends and neighbors, if we do manage to survive past the initial outbreak, the Night of the Living Dead Scenario, and make it to the next stage--the Dawn of the Dead phase--we are in prime position to pick up a lot of hardware that the police will no longer need. If we HAVE been running around blasting .50 ACP at zombies and ruining our wrists and such, now we can throw them away in favor of a better weapon, like a 9mm or, better yet, a .45 caliber. Either bullet will make a zombie fall down and stay down for good, both are relatively simple to learn to operate and handle, and with the overabundance of ammunition lying around, you can actually teach others how to fire them.
Now here comes a tricky part: See, the .223 and 5.56mm are ALMOST the same round, but you can ruin certain guns by firing the wrong one. Bushmaster firearms are all interchangeable between .223 and 5.56, though other brands are not. If your carbine/assault rifle of choice has .223/5.56 written somewhere on it, you're good to go; if not, read your weapon (it is usually on either the barrel or the magazine well) to decide which brand of ammunition is best for use.
I included .22 here for one simple reason: Hunting small game. It will not always be feasible to go into a supermarket and grab a few cans of food. Now and then you might be called upon to get your own food. I would not personally ever put my survival in the hands of so small a caliber as that, however I would also want to conserve my zombie-killing ammunition for the zombies, rather than wasting it on a squirrel.
Ease of Use/Maintenance:
On the movies, no one ever cleans their gun, nor do they ever seem to suffer for the lack. In the real world, the worst weapon in the world is the one that doesn't work when you need it to, and the best is one with a clean interior and all the working parts in order. There are many websites located around the net where one can find proper cleaning techniques for your arsenal. This is one site I found with 30 seconds of searching:
http://www.brooksidepress.org/Products/Ope...LIARIZATION.htm
If you can clean a GLOCK, you can clean just about anything. Handguns are relatively simple to clean and keep in good working order, as are most rifles. An AK-47 is one of the easiest weapons to fire, clean, and maintain in working order, however finding ammunition could become a problem.
Keep your weapons clean now, and you will get into the habit for when the shit hits the fan (SHTF).
Melee Weapons:
Go outside and get a baseball bat. Swing it as hard as you can against a medicine ball. Now repeat. Again and again and again, until you can't any more. I'll wait.
OK, now that you've swung like 5 times, what does that tell you? That's right, melee weapons take a lot out of you. Sure, it looks easy on the movies, but this is the real world. If you really must have a melee weapon, I suggest something long and pointy to stab with, not something to use as a club. Unless you want to be bait, then that's fine.
(Written by Arcades057)
For the ease of use, I agree; the AK-47 is a far simpler weapon, one that was made to give to farmers and peasants without any training that they could use at once and keep in working order with little cleaning.
However, when we come down to range and accuracy, the M-16 weapon system takes the lead by a fair margin. The AK-47's maximum range is only 150-400 meters (I say the lower number, though some will argue) while the M-16 weapon system's maximum range is around 460-550 meters... quite a bit farther. When you're dealing with zombies, which should DEFINTELY be dispatched at long-range, the M16 is the only choice.
I do, however, give the AK-47 weapon system the advantage when dealing with a short-range human threat, especially when multiple targets come into play. The AK-47 can easily be handled, even in rapid-fire (NOTE: I did not say automatic fire) mode. The M-16/M4 are better for dealing with targets at longer range, meaning there should always be a combination of weapons in any living dead environment; all parties should also be well-versed on their roles and not attempt to be neroes or take shots that they shouldn't, thereby putting the rest of the group in danger.
As to the availability of the 7.62x39mm round: It is most usually readily available in gun stores, possibly even Walmarts; however, if you believe for one moment that gun stores and Walmarts will NOT be the focal points of many raids and scavenging operations, then you are sadly mistaken.
I did not include the 7.62x39mm round in my "easily available" ammunition section due to the fact that the majority of our ammunition and equipment should be coming from the bodies of the police and military after the initial outbreak. Some of us ( /me whistles nonchalantly) have saved up many thousands of rounds of .223/5.56 and 7.62x39mm for just this sort of occasion, so we could potentially pick and choose our weapons based on personal likes/dislikes to a greater degree than others.
But don't worry: I have more than enough to go around, fellow Pacificans, so we will be killing zombies together for a long time to come.
(A reply from Arcades057 to an idiot)