shot gun ammo ?

[oger333]

just got done talking with some people about shot gun ammo which one would be the best for killing zombies , am up for slugs but am also up for buckshot . thoughts

[Severus Snape]

I've gotta go with buckshot.

With buckshot, if you miss a little, there is still a chance that some of the shot will penetrate the head and hit/destroy the brain and the stem. With a slug, if you miss, you miss.

[Rockwolf66]

Shotgun rounds

Buckshot( sized 00 or No.4): Great at short ranges of less than 25m after that the spread ends up getting too wide for efficient zombie slaying.

Slug: Now with slug you can accuratly shoot a shotgun at a man sized target past 200m. At those ranges you still have the accuracy and stopping power to shatter hips and shoulders. A shattered hip will turn those annoying fast zombies into crawlers and give you some time to get a well aimed headshot or to escape. Shoulder shots will render one arm of the zombie useless as the muscles of the arms have nothing solid to support them. This will give those going into Melee with a zombie a slight edge that they will need.

Flechettes: 20 one inch long steel darts may be lethal to humans but they are worthless to a zombie hunter. In Vietnam they were found to not have the penatration needed for an enviroment with alot of vegitation. that and they don't break bones which is a bad thing.

Less lethal: As they don't break bones or slow down a zombie these are useless.

Dragon's Breath: While such rounds will set zombies on fire the round is best used to either set vegitation on fire to herd zombies or to set the pile of bodies from a sucsessful zombie hunt on fire.

Dragon Slug: a vaient of the dragon's Breath round that insted of a gout of flames uses a slug filled with an incendiary compound. All of the use of a slug plus it sets the zombie on fire.

Irritant(teargas or Rocksalt): Great against humans but worthless against the undead

High Explosive(frag/heat-12): Difficult to make in other than factory conditions, such rounds are impressive in their use. The resulting explosion will strip the flesh off bones and shatter the bones.

Silent Shot: Not a projectile but a form of round. they can't be used in autoloading shotguns but they have been made since the 1960's and you don't have to mount a long bulky supressor on your shotgun.

Flare: Great for signalling or starting fires not as useful as a propper slug.

[azazel1024]

00 buckshot, federal flight control. Very tight groupings, even with no choke. 00 buck I believe is .32" size balls with around 12 of them in a 12 gauge 2.5" shell I believe. At 20 yds you have a grouping about 16 inches across with no choke and federal flight control rounds.

Which means at 20 yds if you are a good shot pretty every round is going to hit a zed in the head with most of those rounds plenty powerful enough to punch a hole through a zed skull.

Even at longer ranges with a bigger spread, the shot pattern isn't so big you wouldn't likely put a few shot through a zombie brain. At least decent enough out to 40-50yds or even longer with a tight choke. Full choke at 40 yards with a standard lead buckshot round will put 70% of the buckshot in a 30 inch spread.

The little I have seen of federal flight control rounds, they seem to group about 20% tighter, so you'll probably get about 70% in a 24 inch spread at 40yds with a full choke and probably still half or a bit more in a 30 inch spread at 40yds with no choke. With a a 3" 12 gauge shell and 00 buckshot, you are pretty likely to get at least one or two buckshot hitting a zed in the head at 40-50yds. Granted, long range isn't too likely to get a headshot hit.

For slug, it depends on the slug. A rifled slug is quite accurate out to 200yds or more. Of course that requires a rifled shotgun (not entirely a contridiction). For regular slugs you can be pretty accurate out to 100yds or more and some of the good saboted slugs are good out to 200yds. By good, I mean you probably could hit a man sized target at those distances. You likely would not be accurate enough for a headshot at those distances. Halve the distance and you could probably manage a headshot if you were good and a little bit lucky. Maybe 50-100yds with slugs and you could probably attempt a headshot and maybe even connect most of the time. Even a body hit is going to do some massive damage. As mentioned, disable an arm, leg, etc from shoulder or hip hits. Slugs do some terrible damage.

As mentioned flechette are a bit worthless against zombies. Unless you have a tank or artillery flechette round. Those are, for a lack of a better world, horrifying. A dozen little steel arrows from a shotgun round can cause some bad hurt. They don't have a lot of penetration, but they are pretty accurate and regardless, it can still kill a man, if not quite as effectively as buckshot most times.

A 155mm howitzer round filled with 8,000 steel flechettes will strip the trees of their bark and leaves and small branches and people of their flesh in a good 30-40ft cone out to 200 yds from the muzzle. A technique improved upon were timed shells that would be fire out generally in direct fire that would burst at 30ft at ranges of 200-1000yds. They would burst with a bit of a downward angle so it would sleet a good enlongated oval through jungle, etc. You could make if you hid behind a good sized tree, but otherwise you were pwned.

Those do have enough penetration to put a flechette through a zombie skull. Of course a 155m howitzer is not a shotgun.