Perfect Anti Zombie Gun?

[Rockwolf66]

While yes a 12 gauge will make a mess of a human body they are not as effective as people think. Birdshot is just about useless as a combat round...it doesn't have the penatration to damage anything really vital. Buckshot is good for close encounters but the tradeoff is recoil. Now when you get to Slugs you have a round that with an 18 to 20 inch barrel can hit a man sized target at over 200m. Plus it puts a great big gapeing hole in things.

the downside of a shotgun is the hearvy recoil, limited payload(Outside of the Saiga 12, or the USAS-12 any magazine fed shotgun is going to be limited to 6 shots), It's weight(my 8 shot mossberg weighs in at nearly 10 pounds and the ammo is a couple of ounces a shot.) and the fact that you still got to aim it.

As far as a .22LR not doing anything to a zombie. I've had a friend take a hit from a .22LR pistol and he lost about an inch of bone. One little .22LR might not do much but when you dump a dozen rounds into a skul it does a lot of damage.

As far as the 9mm not doing diddly...Have you ever shot anything other than paper with a 9mm. I have an it has good penatration(better than the 5.56X45mm in some cases) and it makes some nasty looking holes in anything but paper. Outside of FMJ rounds(does anyone outside of the millitary ever use FMJ for anything other than practice ammo?) a 9mm makes fist size holes in interior walls and in human beings destroys bone and tissue. From turn of the century testing backed up by friends who own cattle while the .45ACP may be a better round at killing 1,000 pound animals the 9mm does get the job done.

[Jefffar]

The problem with the .22LR is not that enough rounds won't drop a zombie, it's that enough rounds part. You have to be incredibly accurate and incredibly lucky with a .22LR to get a 1 shot stop on an opponent that has the ability to feel pain. On a zombie you have to be able to destroy a sizable channel of tissue and that's going to take a lot more of the small and slow .22LR bullets than with the big and slow .45 ACP or the small and fast 5.56 or the big and fast 7.62.

In regards to the gun for fighting 1000 zombies. If I'm alone I'd probably take a 9mm hollow point because if I can't run in that situation I'm sure not going to let the zombies get me while I'm still able to feel pain.

[dargo83]

hollow point explosive rounds would do great and a .45 would be better. 9mm moves to fast to cause and doesnt have the punch of the .45. even with the 9mm hollow point they have the same punch as a normal .45 were as a .45 hollow point would do a lot of damage.

[Jefffar]

.45s tend to have a much reduced ammunition capacity compared to a 9 and the difference between terminal effects of a 9 and a .45 is not as great as a lot of people think. So all other considerations aside, I'd take the 9 over the .45 in most situations.

[Killer Cyborg]

The problem with the .22LR is not that enough rounds won't drop a zombie, it's that enough rounds part.

Sure, but odds are, there ARE enough rounds available- .22 ammo is everywhere, in large quantities.

You have to be incredibly accurate and incredibly lucky with a .22LR to get a 1 shot stop on an opponent that has the ability to feel pain. On a zombie you have to be able to destroy a sizable channel of tissue and that's going to take a lot more of the small and slow .22LR bullets than with the big and slow .45 ACP or the small and fast 5.56 or the big and fast 7.62.

People hunt dear with .22s, successfully, and if they had a lot of trouble dropping their prey, they never mentioned it to me.
You just have to know where to shoot.
Granted, this is coming from people I've talked to, not an official source.

For that matter, I've heard that the .22 is extremely popular in up-close assassinations/executions, because the bullet will usually penetrate the skull going in, then bounce around inside since it doesn't have enough power to exit.

Obviously, the more powerful the round the better, but by that same token the more ammunition the better, and the lighter the ammunition the better, and the less recoil the better.
I don't think a .22 would make the perfect anti-zombie gun, and it wouldn't generally be a good choice over many other weapons, but it'd be a lot better than nothing, and an excellent spare weapon to have around for situations where it would be useful.

[Killer Cyborg]

However, any .22 really is (in game terms) a "called shot" weapon. You either have to pepper your target full of lead or be really accurate, neither is good in a convergence.

Definitely.

[Cybermancer]

People hunt dear with .22s, successfully, and if they had a lot of trouble dropping their prey, they never mentioned it to me.
You just have to know where to shoot.
Granted, this is coming from people I've talked to, not an official source.

I've been out deer hunting a few times and I never heard about anyone trying this. The smallest cartridge I've seen personally used is .230. The various .30 calibers are also fairly common. However, I am only one person so I googled it. Here's what I found on the subject. Please bear in mind that these are people who hunt dear.

For those who don't want to read the forum threads presented above, the consensus is that the .22LR is used by poachers and is illegal in a lot of places for deer hunting. It's considered by many to be an unethical round to use against deer because it's not a sure kill.

There are several factors one should consider when selecting a firearm and a type of cartridge. It is important to bear in mind that there is no 'magic bullet' (if you'll excuse the pun) that will fill all needs.

.22LR is good for small game, target shooting and teaching new shooters. Ammo is plentiful and cheap. Very low recoil as well.It's also not very effective outside it's niche. I don't have one of these although I'm getting one this summer to teach my son to shoot.

.30 in it's various incarnations is good for hunting in North America and can handle anything from deer to bear, moose and elk. I prefer the 30-06 but the .300 Winchester and .308 are also very good rounds. While not as cheap or plentiful as the .22, it is still quite common. It's heavier but that's the price you have to paid to be more effective against larger targets. More recoil as well. Again, it's the price you pay. My 30-06 is the first rifle I owned (but not the first I ever shot).

12 Gauge shotgun. Different barrel options and different stock options available for just a single firearm. Wide range of ammo types contributes to making this firearm the jack of all trades. BUT it doesn't do any of those roles as well as a firearm dedicated to the purpose. The shotgun does hunt fowl pretty well though. I don't personally hunt fowl so I can't say if it's the best suited for the job. This is the second firearm I ever bought.

5.56/.223 I have mixed feelings about. It's the first caliber I ever shot (being in the military) and the one I have the most experience with. You can drop a human with one shot but two is better. It is accurate and it is light and it is easy to use. I own an M4 clone for the purpose of target shooting as I don't think I get enough range time at work. If I were fighting people, training, experience and availability would make this my firearm of choice. Primarily because the most likely situation where that would arise is at work and it's what they'd give me to work with.

If I were fighting Zombies I would choose my 30-06 for distance shots and my shotgun (loaded with slugs) for up close.

I would only use a pistol to fight my way to the long arm I should never have put down in the first place.

While there are other rounds and firearms, I stuck to what I knew because that's what would be perfect for me. YMMV.