Zombie Gun Selection Revisited

I came across a post by Mad Ogre regarding zombie gun selection that piqued my interest. As expected, the comments included the normal exchange of intelligent ideas by fanboys and haters. Given my previous interest in the subject, I couldn't help but through my two cents into the fray. It also gave me an opportunity to rethink my choices and strategy for the coming zombie apocalypse. For your consideration, my thoughts are now presented here:

People, people. You have to remember that weapons selection has to be part of an overall strategy. Know your enemy. Know the limitations of you and your equipment. Strategize accordingly. Take a box of your favorite ammo whether it’s 12 gauge shells, a brick of .22 or a box of .223. How much of each can you carry along with your other gear? How many zombies can you engage with your load out before you have to resupply? How fast can you reload that 870/M4/Glock while running for your life? In an urban setting with 1000s of zombies looking for food, a couple of bricks of .22 with a suppressed rifle may serve you much better than a case of 12 gauge. Do you really need to engage a zombie 500 yards away that’s heading for the next town away? Are your skills or your equipment up to minute of cranium accuracy at that range? In a rural setting, the .308 or .223 may be more useful to keep the back 40 clear of your crops. Bottomline, if you are comfortable with it, know how to use it, have thought through your strategy, good for you and good luck. If you’re sitting there with you finger up your nose without a clue, you’ve got work to do. Get busy.

For the record, my load out of choice for mobility would be a good quality polymer, major caliber, striker fired, suppressed combat pistol with 200 rounds for those occasions when you need to enter an unknown building (like to look for food or supplies) and an AR in .223 with as many rounds and mags as I can comfortably carry. My preference here would be either the full size Glock or the S&W M&P in .40 or .45 although I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a 9mm. Point and shoot ease of use and acceptable accuracy in CQB situations. A thought here would be to carry a backup pistol in an alternate caliber. An extra polymer pistol with a few extra mags only adds a couple of pounds to your load out, but it might come in handy if you run out of your basic load out and stumble across someone less lucky who had a different caliber choice in mind. Check the LEO agencies in your area to see what they carry. Make your primary gun compatible with the majority of agencies and your back up compatible with the runner up and you shouldn’t have trouble rearming or topping off your load out as need arises. I’m seeing more LEO agencies in my area switching from shotguns to M4 variants as their long gun of choice making the .223 the logical choice for longer range engagement as necessary.

For point defense of home base, I would still keep the polymer pistol on my hip as a last resort gun. I would keep an 870 12 gauge handy for inside the house distances. 00 buck will take care of most anything poking in through windows and doors. The weight of the shells to be carried isn’t as much of a concern in this scenario as you can have a pallet of the stuff in the middle of the floor and “New York” reloads ready to go for resupply as needed. The center piece of the point defense system would be a sniper rifle though. Nothing should come within a 1000 yards of home base without showing signs of intelligence. A .50 BMG would be nice, but rounds are hard to come by for most of us. A good quality .308 with a suppressor is a good alternative in my opinion. Plentiful enough to stock up and practice with regularly. Powerful enough for a one shot kill. Accurate enough to make it happen at 1000 yards. The suppressor may not be able to quiet the bullet’s sonic crack, but it can help with disguising the source of the bullet.

Your experience may vary.

 **Note, I'm writing this on Thursday but it shouldn't post until Friday. This is my first attempt to schedule a post. I normally write and post real time; however, since I've already got one up for today and will be posting something else later today, I thought it be good to see how stacking up some content for later distribution works.