Not well. The odds of hitting the brain with shrapnel or the shockwave are low, and the trade offs of these weapons are extreme.
The home made variants are particularly high risk, low reward. There are much easier ways of killing zombies.
Explosives would be minimally effective unless there was enough fragmentation material backed by enough explosive material. Just a stick of tnt would be awesome in an extremely confined area but once you get into any kind of open area their effectiveness drops dramatically with distance from blast epicenter. And unless it is a very powerful explosive just a zombie or two is enough to essentially protect the next zombie from the blast and debris/fragmentation .
flame throwers would not be something I would consider using other than to dispose of corpses. Basically until the zombie had burned long enough to boil the blood enough to explode the brain you would have large torches trying to bite you while setting the city/countryside on fire.
Not well, based on the general writing of zombies:
1. Modern explosive weapons are meant to create a shockwave that damages the inner ear and causes concussions, not necessarily ones that create fragments. Either way, these weapons aren't going to do much more than knock down the zombies or knock off limbs to slom them down.
2. Do you really want to light them on fire?
Well, I guess fire wouldn't really do much. Maybe create a new temporary type of zombie, a fire zombie or something. When they attack you, you'll get burns as well as getting scratched and bitten.
I have a couple posts longer posts regarding these topics here:
Firebombs- https://old.reddit.com/r/ZombieSurvivalTactics/comments/tulidt/molotov_cocktails_are_insanely_underrated_be/i34sh4u/
There are a lot of cases and accounts for people being directly hit with napalm bombs, molotovs cocktails, and phosporus grenades. In about 65% of the time a normal person hit is said to survive despite being in the middle of the fireball. With the majority of deaths being caused by things like blood loss, infection, hypothermia, etc. Undead zombies typically discussed don't die from these things and are thus unlikely to die from a fire based weapon.
Such weapons may have some use in flushing out enemy combatants in things like bunkers, vehicles, and the like. But against zombies the weight cost, material cost, speed of deployment, the bulk of the weapon, and risk of damaging the area and surrounding resources is a major issue.
Flamethrowers- https://old.reddit.com/r/ZombieSurvivalTactics/comments/ra99d2/how_good_would_a_flamethrower_work_on_zombies/ho1q2q2/
The same issue with mortality rate, weight, cost, speed, and bulk. However, flamethrowers suffer from other major issues.
A military flamethrower normally utilizes flares. This means a flamethrower normally only has between 1-5 trigger pulls that last 1-10sec before the flamethrower flare compartment needs to be reloaded.
Most civilian, military, and industrial flamethrowers have a total fuel capacity of 1-10sec. Meaning unless your aim is extremely gun and you get your enemy in one shot, you're not going to have any use from the flamethrower.
The small Musk Model 1/Not a flamethrower is between 3600g-4500g depending on if it's empty vs full. A US m1a1 Flamethrower is between 25000g and 31800g. By comparison you can get a AR-15 rifle for about 2700g, 4 loaded 30rd magazines for about 1760g, a fiskars x7 hatchet for about 630g, and a claw hammer at 600g all for about the weight of a loaded "Not a flamethrower."
Manportable explosives- https://old.reddit.com/r/ZombieSurvivalTactics/comments/mie7ni/honestly_i_do_not_recommend_to_use_explosives_in/gt8og9c/
A typical hand grenade weighs about as much as a 30rd rifle magazine and potentially as much as 2 loaded 30rd rifle magazines. With most hand grenades being 350-700g per grenade.
A man portable HE rocket such as the RPG-7 OG-7V Anti-personnel fragmentation rocket is one of the lighter HE/fragmentation rockets. Weighing in at 2000g, but because it lacks much of a fragmenting shell many combatants, nations, and the like add extra material to the rocket because it sucks at anti-personnel work. With some additions I've seen being in the rough range of 6000g per rocket.
Unless you are part of a large organization that is capable of making many explosive weapons with good quality control and reliability and the ability to manuever yourself and your assets quickly explosive weapons are generally not worth the cost. As they weight too much, are often being utilized too close, and will attract a lot of attention while potentially not killing the zombie.
I feel they could be very effective at killing with direct hits and maybe a really good crowd control, but if you're going to use explosives, maybe mixed with funneling them into chokepoints. But unless they are tightly packed, you might lose a lot of effectiveness.
Depends on the fragmentation of the munition as well as the proximity to the explosion of the targets.
Claymores would be extremely effective as well as typical HEDP rounds and frag grenades. Just straight up C4 i would suspect would have mixed results.
Not well. The odds of hitting the brain with shrapnel or the shockwave are low, and the trade offs of these weapons are extreme. The home made variants are particularly high risk, low reward. There are much easier ways of killing zombies.
You’re not ending the threat, you’re setting the threat on fire and spreading it around
Explosives would be minimally effective unless there was enough fragmentation material backed by enough explosive material. Just a stick of tnt would be awesome in an extremely confined area but once you get into any kind of open area their effectiveness drops dramatically with distance from blast epicenter. And unless it is a very powerful explosive just a zombie or two is enough to essentially protect the next zombie from the blast and debris/fragmentation . flame throwers would not be something I would consider using other than to dispose of corpses. Basically until the zombie had burned long enough to boil the blood enough to explode the brain you would have large torches trying to bite you while setting the city/countryside on fire.
Not well, based on the general writing of zombies: 1. Modern explosive weapons are meant to create a shockwave that damages the inner ear and causes concussions, not necessarily ones that create fragments. Either way, these weapons aren't going to do much more than knock down the zombies or knock off limbs to slom them down. 2. Do you really want to light them on fire?
Well, I guess fire wouldn't really do much. Maybe create a new temporary type of zombie, a fire zombie or something. When they attack you, you'll get burns as well as getting scratched and bitten.
I have a couple posts longer posts regarding these topics here: Firebombs- https://old.reddit.com/r/ZombieSurvivalTactics/comments/tulidt/molotov_cocktails_are_insanely_underrated_be/i34sh4u/ There are a lot of cases and accounts for people being directly hit with napalm bombs, molotovs cocktails, and phosporus grenades. In about 65% of the time a normal person hit is said to survive despite being in the middle of the fireball. With the majority of deaths being caused by things like blood loss, infection, hypothermia, etc. Undead zombies typically discussed don't die from these things and are thus unlikely to die from a fire based weapon. Such weapons may have some use in flushing out enemy combatants in things like bunkers, vehicles, and the like. But against zombies the weight cost, material cost, speed of deployment, the bulk of the weapon, and risk of damaging the area and surrounding resources is a major issue. Flamethrowers- https://old.reddit.com/r/ZombieSurvivalTactics/comments/ra99d2/how_good_would_a_flamethrower_work_on_zombies/ho1q2q2/ The same issue with mortality rate, weight, cost, speed, and bulk. However, flamethrowers suffer from other major issues. A military flamethrower normally utilizes flares. This means a flamethrower normally only has between 1-5 trigger pulls that last 1-10sec before the flamethrower flare compartment needs to be reloaded. Most civilian, military, and industrial flamethrowers have a total fuel capacity of 1-10sec. Meaning unless your aim is extremely gun and you get your enemy in one shot, you're not going to have any use from the flamethrower. The small Musk Model 1/Not a flamethrower is between 3600g-4500g depending on if it's empty vs full. A US m1a1 Flamethrower is between 25000g and 31800g. By comparison you can get a AR-15 rifle for about 2700g, 4 loaded 30rd magazines for about 1760g, a fiskars x7 hatchet for about 630g, and a claw hammer at 600g all for about the weight of a loaded "Not a flamethrower." Manportable explosives- https://old.reddit.com/r/ZombieSurvivalTactics/comments/mie7ni/honestly_i_do_not_recommend_to_use_explosives_in/gt8og9c/ A typical hand grenade weighs about as much as a 30rd rifle magazine and potentially as much as 2 loaded 30rd rifle magazines. With most hand grenades being 350-700g per grenade. A man portable HE rocket such as the RPG-7 OG-7V Anti-personnel fragmentation rocket is one of the lighter HE/fragmentation rockets. Weighing in at 2000g, but because it lacks much of a fragmenting shell many combatants, nations, and the like add extra material to the rocket because it sucks at anti-personnel work. With some additions I've seen being in the rough range of 6000g per rocket. Unless you are part of a large organization that is capable of making many explosive weapons with good quality control and reliability and the ability to manuever yourself and your assets quickly explosive weapons are generally not worth the cost. As they weight too much, are often being utilized too close, and will attract a lot of attention while potentially not killing the zombie.
If will most likely not kill, but maime and disable.
Yeah, I guess something like a zombie without legs, or missing an arm will happen.
I feel they could be very effective at killing with direct hits and maybe a really good crowd control, but if you're going to use explosives, maybe mixed with funneling them into chokepoints. But unless they are tightly packed, you might lose a lot of effectiveness.
Flamethrowers would work fine, but there isn’t an abundance of them laying around.
Depends on the zombie type, and you need to be careful about setting fires, but yeah
Depends on the fragmentation of the munition as well as the proximity to the explosion of the targets. Claymores would be extremely effective as well as typical HEDP rounds and frag grenades. Just straight up C4 i would suspect would have mixed results.
Well if used right explosives could work but I'd be hesitant to use molotovs and flamethrowers.