Zombie survival quiz

Z+

While the shotgun may seem like a appealing weapon....I dont see it that way. perhaps against living, since the spread patterns of certain rounds....but against zombies, shuffeling or otherwise.  To do any serious damage to render therm incapacitated or dead, you would need to be close. There not clay pigeons you know.

I aswell shoot trap/skeet, am okay at it. I have carried a shotgun in combat, but again, it was more of a breaching tool (opening doors) then anything. Slide actions against zombies it worthless....it is a proven fact that any living being on this earth that heards the rack of a shotgun slide, looses atleast 3 sizes in there testicular region of confidence...zombies would care if you racked it once or eight times...there still going to come at you....perhaps a semi-automatic shotgun, with either one shot, two shot, or room sweeper.

but then you run into the round capacity.....8+1 in chamber....them your out and have to reload...which means digging out rounds, unless you have a side saddle, and sliding them one by one in....to time consuming.

assualt rifle, 30+1....from 5.56 Nato up to 14.5mm for some....after expending a magazine. simply press the magazine release to drop mag. pull out and insert new one, press bolt release and fire. way significant time diffrence....a trained person can do a mag change in two ways...simple drop the old (pointless and wasteful you will need it later) or slip it into a magazine dump pouch, or clip it to a d-ring.  we will go with saving the mags for later use.....a trained person can do this in a matter of 8 seconds at worst, 5 at best. (trust me, most soldiers can tell you,  Grunts practice this stuff)

now you were also talking about distance...50 ft? to damn close IMO. with a shotgun, sure...ive done combat shotgun lanes, aswell as combat pistol lanes....ranging from targets  at 10m (30 feet) out to 20 m (60 ft)....thats its really....cant hit much after that, and even if you do...you wont be accurate or effective.

with an assult rifle...we will say the Army's M-4 Carbine...with just plain iron sights, I have never shot less then expert...which on a pop up range is  36 out or 40 targets, ranging from 50m (150 ft) to 300m (900 ft).  at a KD (known distance) range, the standards are 38 out of 40. from 300, 200, 100 meter distances.\
The Marines, who still uses the good ole musket (M-16) rifle, practice from 500 m (1500ft). Now...while I am not saying you will be plugging head shots at that distance with it...you can still reach out and touch them.

anything under 200 meters with a CCO (close combat optic) such as M-68, ACOG, EO-Tech....is easy to drill head shots with consistently.

sorry to make it long winded, but IMO an assult rifle is by far the better choice.

The reason the assault rifle doesn't rate as high as a hunting rifle is the psychological impulse to go semi-auto or full auto.  Ammo conservation and controlled head/knee shots are desired when fighting the undead. (Why knee? Because some rounds do enough tissue damage that you can blow the knee away along with the lower leg. Slowing a zombie down by making it hobble on a stump increases survival).

Shotguns are good for close quarters, which is NOT the distance you wanna be at with a zombie.

I can get 9 shots off faster with the pump than with the semi-auto.  Hold the trigger as yu rack it and it keeps firing.

Using .50 sabot rounds in a shotgun increases the accurate range to 100 yards, or so the ded dear show me.  It requires a special rifled barrel, but who cares if you rip through them.

I can reload a shotgun in about 20 seconds, but remember Rob, I mentioned the hot chick.  She can reload while I empty the nine shots I have.  If she holds the second gun, that gives us 18.  I guarantee within a week of hanging around me, she will be able to hit something.

Test fired a Thompson a few years ago in the backyard.  Its reputation for inaccuracy is somewhat undeserved if firing single or three shot bursts.  Full auto you have a problem staying on target.  However, when that .45 hits a zombie, if it doesn't rip of a limb or something, it will stop them in their tracks (ask the Maori).  50 round drum provides lots of firepower.  Heavy as all get go.

Just appropo for nothing, Erwin Rommel hunted gazelle in N. Africa with an assault rifle, commenting that he wanted meat, not sport.

Okay big diffrence between semi auto and full auto, semi auto means 1 shot, and the weapon reloads itself, with out you having to manually chamber another round. As far as psychological impulse? dont buy it, I carry a assualt rifle on a daily basis and have never had the urge. Even in the firefights I have been in, I have never even switched my weapon to three round burst have always used Semi, and I train my men the same way. I can fire three shots in rapid succession on Semi and always place all three rounds center mass of the target I am aim for.  Or do the two in the chest one in the head everyone hears about.

Hunting rifle....commonly found store bought to state regs. can hold 5 rounds with on in the chamber.

Assualt Rifle... run of the mil gun shop bought to state regs, has only safe and semi-automatic (1 shot for those not to gun savy)

Hunting rifle.... tweaked by a gunsmith or similair, maybe a magazine well giving you the capacity of 5 extra rounds, 10 +1.

Assault Rifle... run of the mil infantry grunt, safe, semi-automatic, 3 round burst. (only weapons that the army has that fire full auto are the light machineguns, SAW's, and Heavy machineguns.) The only people in the US army that have fully automatic assualt rifles as AWG (Asymetrical warfare Group)

Now yes, people have the misconception of the power behind Spray n Pray....sure you will hit things....might aswell use a shotgun then. and that you need to do Controlled knee/head shots....again the reason why a assualt rifle is  semi-auto...single shot...easier to do controlled pairs ot tripple taps ((two in the chest one in the head)). and you can do it with more ammo without reloading, and seeing as most assualt rifles are built now to have collapsable stocks...in smallers areas then it is to try and wield a hunting riflle still beats out hunting rifle IMO.

No matter what anyone says. The assualt rifle will be the better choice in my mind. I can hit targets as far as a hunting rifle can, or be used on targets in a close quaters enviroment.

Now Charlie, 20 seconds is slow. I dont know if you have ever been in a situation. I can tell you, 20 seconds is a LONG LONG time.  Even with a second person loading...you will go through rounds faster then she can load.

Im not saying I wouldnt have a shotgun around...its a great tool, and room clearer.

But you can bet that the best place for most of the non-combatants in the world, is with Infantry or other Combat arms  jobs....

i know with my men, everytime we go outside the wire...its the safest place to be

But you are not fighting zombies in confined quarters, Rob. .  If I was at the sharp end of the stick, I'd go with what you do.  Thompsons had a brief resurgence in Vietnam, where its brush penetrating abilities were valued.  If I was going to have a self defense weapon in Jamaica, it would be both a Louisville Slugger and a 12 gauge Ithaca pump with #2 shot.

Yes, 20 seconds is forever in a fight, but how many zombies will there be in the room?  Zombies shuffle, not run, and their evasion skills are - lacking.