JSThane wrote:Two handguns, one for "high capacity," one for "high power."
High capacity, some flavor of double-stack .45. Contenders for the list are an XD-45 and a Kimber Poly Custom. I choose .45 to cause as much undead dain bramage as possible, the better to flip the switch permanently off. One would assume that, being undead, zombies would already have some brain damage from necrosis; I would want to increase that as much as possible. A shambler paralyzed in one arm from a .33 won't cut it for me.
High power, for use in "line 'em up and stack 'em up" situations where shoot-throughs reaching multiple targets are a possibility, Ruger Super Redhawk .454. Same size bullet, lots more power, ought to work a bit better in "crowd-clearing" zombie applications when I don't have a rifle.
Speaking of rifles, I'd probably go with an AR of some flavor, but loaded up with softpoint ammo to mitigate the bullet's small size, possibly alternating with FMJ for the above-mentioned "crowd-clearing" application. But who knows, FMJ might prove sufficient in and of itself; I've never fought off undead hordes of hungry zombies before.
If brain destruction is your goal, you will be just as efficient with a .22 as with a .45. Here's why..... A .45 bullet, from normal handgun range, will pass right through a human head. Sure, it will mushroom, and there will be a larger exit hole than entrance hole, and the wound will be devastating, but a .22 has a very interesting phenomenon in head wounds. (I've actually seen the results of this in real life.) A .22 penetrates the skull, but it doesn't quite have enough energy to punch out the other side - unless fired from
really close - so what happens is that the bullet ricochets around inside the skull, sort of like the mixing ball inside a can of spray paint when you shake it, sometimes just riding along the interior surface of the bone, and it kind of scrambles the whole thing into an omlet. Brain injury from a .22 ends up being pretty much as devastating as from a larger caliber. Even if it doesn't kill you outright, you might wish it had. Just ask Jim Brady.
As far as the AR choice goes, I think that it is probably the best choice for a general purpose centerfire long gun. It has an effective range of several hundred meters, assuming it's an accurate example and you are good with it. It works pretty much as well against human predators as against zombies. But it has one disadvantage over a suppressed .22, and that is noise.........and zombies are attracted to noise. You might get real good at killing zombies at 500 meters, but the ones that sneak up on you from behind while you're focused on what's out front are going to eat your butt. So, you're going to want a
suppressed AR. But the problem is that, even suppressed, supersonic rounds still make a significant "crack", which is audible at some distance. To get really quiet, you have to shoot subsonic, and then you begin to lose the
one thing that makes a 5.56mm bullet so effective - velocity. And with velocity loss, you lose both range and terminal ballistics. Sans velocity, FMJs may fail to upset, and softpoints may fail to open up; and neither bullet will penetrate as well.
So, you're back to a suppressed .22 (pistol or carbine, take your pick) as a primary defense weapon.
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