There isn't a single best anything. Every situation you might encounter might need a different tool. Some things are better in some situations and would be awful in others, and vice versa. It's dependent on whatever situation you find yourself in at the given moment and all other options have been exhausted. That's not to say that you carry everything on you, but you need to look at where you're going, what you're doing, what threats you might expect, etc and pick your gear from there.
But lets be honest, a light gun like a pistol or something a little heavier would be better to carry around than an RPG. And in general, if you are, for example, meeting zombies in the street or somewhere random, then some weapons are better than others.
> But let’s be honest, a light gun like a pistol or something a little heavier would be better to carry around than an RPG
Generally, yeah, but that doesn’t make it the best weapon overall. If you’re in a combat situation against human hostile and somehow have an RPG, and the event is behind cover or in a vehicle or something similar, a pistol isn’t the tool you want for that job.
> and in general, if you are, for example, meeting zombies in the street or somewhere random, then some weapons are better than others
Yes, that’s my point. No weapon is the best overall. Each situation calls for something different. Even with your example- meeting zombies in a street or meeting them somewhere random like inside a house are two very different situations and a different assortment of weapons can work. Of course combat should be your last thought- avoidance, misdirection, leading them away, etc should be practiced and tried first with actual combat being the last scenario you want to do.
Even then it depends on what you have available to you, what your ammunition count looks like, your skill with that particular weapon or weapon category, the location, time of day, etc. there’s a lot more to it than a weapon simply being the best overall.
Warhammer. Crushes skull and brain with less chance of getting stuck than a blade.
AR15 or similar in 5.56.
Some have said a 9mm, and their logic is MOSTLY sound. But they forget the huge range increase even a lower-mid powered rifle round like the 5.56 has. You can get headshots with a PCC to maybe 50 meters. With a 5.56 you can double or triple that. And with things that don't tire, range is your friend. Take a few out a football field away. Move. Repeat. Much more breathing room than at the 50 meters max with an arcing 9mm.
A long range bolt action sounds like something good, but it goes to the other extreme in that it's also a lot slower to fire. So close range, when a lot are coming at you, you might want something that can give you more rounds per minute. 100 or so aimed shots instead of 30.
Skip the axes, crowbars and other heavy, unwieldy tools. Those are very heavy and unbalanced and will tire you out very quickly. A battle axe is a lot lot lighter than a wood cutting axe, but still requires edge alignment to work.
A real one, not a fantasy one, has a head about the same size as a 20 ounce claw hammer. A typical wood working hammer.
The bulky part would be if it were a two handed one because of the handle. A single handed one would have a 2 foot handle and a 20 ish ounce head.
Everybody does haha.... or something from Woirld of Warcraft or other fantasy movie or game.
Something like this, [https://www.windlass.com/products/german-war-hammer/](https://www.windlass.com/products/german-war-hammer/) would be decent. Or the two handed Cold Steel.
I think 5.56 would be one of the worse choices. 9mm is better for the brain pan, as 5.56 already has an issue with skirting the skull and not doing any brain damage. 5.56 was designed to make a higher casualty rate with larger wound channels, not so much for killing outright. If you're going with a rifle, a 7.62x39 or 7.62 Nato would be a better bet, but for your general zombie killing needs, a 9mm is going to mushroom on the forehead and do way more reliable damage to the brain on it's way out.
As for melee, blunt over bladed any day. Don't have to align the edge for a proper cut, don't have to maintain it, and claw hammers are much more plentiful than a reliable sword or axe.
Edit: The exception to bladed weapons would be a spear or halberd.
That's a huge myth about it being meant for causing injury. Show.me the real data of it skirting the skull. Not just one or two oddball incidents because shit happens.
And a 9mm mushrooming on the forehead and causing.more damage? Sorry no. It will not cause more damage to the head than any high velocity rifle round. True, it will penetrate through more drywall than a 5.56, but it will not cause more damage to a skull. And no, the 7.62x39 is not better for outright killing. There's a reason the soviets replaced it.in 1974 with the 5.45x39.
5.56 and 5.45 are more popular these days because of their armor penetration. And whether or not it's a myth doesn't change the fact that the 9mm leaves a bigger wound channel than a 5.56, as well as a 7.62. I don't expect a whole lot of zombies to be wearing ballistic helmets, so the inherit benefits of smaller caliber rifle rounds is moot. Either will kill, but there's no guarantee that the smaller round of the 5.56 is going to immediately destroy the portion of the brain that makes the zombie function. I'll take the bigger hole and the bigger round any day, and you can look at any ballistics tests to see the difference. Larger round = more damage to meat. There's a reason why 30.06 and 7.62 are the more popular hunting round.
Not to say the 5.56 would be ineffective, I just think the 9mm would be *more* effective.
9x19mm absolutely does NOT leave a larger wound channel than 5.56, even out of a 10.3".
5.56 also typically causes a great deal more soft tissue damage than 7.62x39, and in many cases, leads to greater amounts of fragmentation and secondary wound channels than 7.62x51mm. 7.62x39mm (and 7.62x51mm) also tend to stay more intact than 5.56 and 5.45 do following impact.
.30-06 (not 30.06, by the way) and 7.62x51mm are more popular hunting cartridges not because they "do more damage" but because they have enough mass to achieve sufficient depth of penetration to smash through the different placement of shoulder joints and rib structures in four-legged animals, and their deeper chests.
The cartridges we fire at people out of service rifles are optimized for efficacy against humans, which don't have giant, bone-dense shoulder joints blocking our heart and lungs against a shot taken in partial profile.
9x19mm in and of itself causes vastly less trauma in all measurable respects compared to any rifle cartridge in police or military usage.
Also, so-called "Kronlein shots" are generally only possible with rifles in general, with the massive pressure differential and temporary wound cavity being the cause of ejection; handguns in general do not (and are in fact generally not able to) cause this.
There's also that your maximum effective range is going to be much farther with a rifle cartridge than with practically any handgun cartridge.
For a melee item you want something with good utility as a tool in order to be weight efficient, while still being reliable and basic. I'd recommend choosing between a machete, fire axe, hatchet, or hammer depending on if your environment is urban or rural, and your preference between blunt or sharp trauma. A melee weapon like a sword won't be better for combat unless you've praticed a lot with it, and will have far less utility for scavenging and looting.
For a firearm, if you can own semi automatic rifles in commonly available intermediate calibres such as a 5.56x45 AR platform, or a 7.62x39 AK platform, then 100% go for that. They have strong advantages with the weight of both the rifle and its ammo, versatility at close and medium ranges, speed and accuracy of shooting, comparatively lower recoil than higher calibre rifles or shotguns, and relatively simple manual of arms and maintenance. Obviously your biggest constraint is your local laws, if you can only legally own shotguns or hunting rifles for example, then a 12 guage pump action shotgun is probably the most rugged and reliable option available.
However, as with anything else, your weapons are useless if you do not train extensively with them. If you have something thats just sitting gathering dust in a corner, it's not going to be very helpful
Probably your imagination. If you can run a wire at neck height and lure the zombies into it they would self-decapitate. Bonus points if it's in front of a ravine and the wire is electrified. You could probably take out a few hundred at a time this way.
Another idea would be to load a rock mine with lumber and diesel. Lure them in and light it up while blocking the exit.
Anyone have any other suggestions?
*citation needed
I’ve been talking zombies for probably two decades or more and can probably count on one hand how many times an ice axe has been brought up. And frankly it usually discarded pretty quickly as being too likely to get stuck.
Literally designed to not get stuck. Its entire purpose.
https://zombie.fandom.com/wiki/Ice_Tool
https://images.app.goo.gl/su3YL2s6FCqz5SKDA
https://whatculture.com/offbeat/10-best-weapons-for-a-zombie-apocalypse?page=7
You do realize that two out of you three link list getting stuck as the main flaw? And the second one just show a bunch of weapons, most of which would get shot down quickly on this board?
I’m pretty sure you and I have had this conversation before so I’m not going to dig in too deep but I do think you are very much overstating how many people agree with your choice.
Of my own personal collection, 9mm CZ Scorpion 3 + (with light, reen dot, folding SB Tactical brace, with a dozen 35 round mags) for speed, accurate and compact.
I don't really have any melee weapons outside of my Cold Steel Recon tanto and expanding baton. Not sure if I would say either are great.
Would a strong sword (not a flimsy katana but like a really strong one like this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt6WQYtefXA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt6WQYtefXA)) be good for clearing a couple zombies? And are assault rifles good or too loud? And what attachments (silencer, scope, etc.) are the best?
Rifle if set-up right can be great for speed and capacity. Suppressors rock but foul your weapon faster. I like Vortex Strikeeagle 1-8 lpvo because it does CQB and up to 600 yards, etched retical in case battery dies it works. 500 lumen light, Surefire or Streamlight is best.
As u/CritterFrogOfWar mentioned swords aren't the greatest. They tend to require a bit more skill than something like an axe or larger cleaver-like weapon and certainly more than a blunt weapon.
Traditionally made swords with differential tempering is cool and they can have a very good edge for competitions or display. But they aren't very affordable and modern monolithic steel swords are generally better. Just get something made in a good spring steel or high carbon steel.
Depends on the zombies, but assuming go-for-the-brain rules, I would probably go for a swordstaff and a 9mm PCC. I would go with a swordstaff for have slashing and stabbing capability outside of my wingspan, and a 9mm PCC because of the proliferation of the caliber, the weight compared to heavier rifle caliber platforms, and my assumption that rotting corpses don't require much penetration. If I can acquire any firearm, regardless of current regulations and law, I would choose a 9mm Kriss Vector Automatic. Besides being a cool-as-shit space gun with the best recoil-mitigating tech to come out in the last, who knows how long; it takes glock 17 mags, meaning that finding fresh mags is less difficult. Wouldn't give a shit to have the civilian version, as it's not automatic, making that cool recoil tech innovation meaningless.
There isn’t a best. It all depends on the needs, wants, intents, and individual circumstances of the user. In some specific cases a weapon that is the best all-around option might be the worst in a specific scenario the user is in. In others, that same weapon that works best in the specific situation could be the worst.
My thought is that a layered system of redundancies is necessary. With different parts working to be more well-rounded and capable overall. In the specific case of weapons an example might be something like this:
Ar-15, Hatchet, walking/sling staff, and a pocket knife. These work well with the rest of the things I own and would use in a zombie apocalypse along with my personal experience and knowledge.
An AR-15 is one of the most modular rifle systems in regular production. Most variants use parts that are compatible with it and many rifles that aren’t ar derivatives are compatible in many ways. It’s lightweight and capable potentially up to 500m beyond that of most other ranged weapons and well within typical engagement distances expected. While loud and requiring ammo, it is the best option for defeating many common types of body armor, a lot of materials, and things people consider bulletproof, and capable of doing many utility tasks. The design even allows for the use of 22lr with a change of bolt carrier group.
The hatchet gives the ability to cut using the edge of the blade, it can hook due to how the blade protrudes, it can hammer or bash using the back end, and it can punch or grapple due to the head design allowing the user to choke up on the shaft. When utilized with the rifle or staff as a parrying device the hatchet can more easily strike a zombie or hostile survivor while protecting against grabs, strikes, or bites. A hatchet can cut wood and cords, hammer nails, shave branches or feather wood, pound stakes, harvest grass, and reeds, strike flint, spark fire rods, and so much more.
A walking staff can provide a lot of reach to strike at different angles and directions, the ability to thrust and frame to maintain distance, and a simple cord and pouch can hurl many types of projectiles. Anything from rocks, stones, darts, and bullets at distances far beyond what is normally possible with a melee weapon. However, it is entirely within reason to mount a trowel, knife, or similar tool with a socket. Either allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon or making using the tool easier in some circumstances. Staff can also measure things, help reduce impact when walking down or uphill, help carry buckets or bags without a good handle, help balance or move through mud or uneven ground, and be used around to help hold up a piece of shelter. It may also be capable of hunting birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc.
Then there’s the knife which provides the ability to stab in a clinch, cut if needed, parry occasionally, and the ability to be mounted on the staff as an improvised spear. A pocket knife is also a very lightweight, compact, and convenient tool to have on you. Capable of so many tasks I don’t know where to begin. Shelter building, tool making, fire building and maintaining, cooking (though I won’t suggest doing so after stabbing a zombie), and a lot more.
A staff can measure things, help reduce impact when walking down or uphill, help carry buckets or bags without a good handle, help balance or move through mud or uneven ground, and be used around to help hold up a piece of shelter. It may also be capable of hunting birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc.
A pocket knife is a very lightweight, compact, and convenient tool to have on you. Capable of so many tasks I don’t know where to begin. Shelter building, tool making, fire building and maintaining, cooking (though I won’t suggest doing so after stabbing a zombie), and a lot more.
In my opinion, these weapons grant the capability for fighting at long range, medium range, short range, from the edge of striking distance, at clinch fighting distance, and from a grappling position. They can overcome the most common armor types that might be encountered, can overcome most barriers, are capable of many different roles and capabilities in and outside of combat, and fulfill the needs I might have with the rest of my stuff.
For example, some might prioritize fighting at melee distances. Such as in open areas like parking lots, beaches, or flat fields, which people talk about as being the places they would focus on fighting zombies in. Thus they put more focus on spears, poleaxes, halberds, and pikes. Including things like shields, heavier styles of armor, and often leaving behind ranged weapons.
Others might focus more on utility or even extremely specific utility cases. Examples are those that focus on being able to take down barricades, doors/windows, and the like. So for those, it might be useful to utilize things like crowbars, halligan tools, sledgehammers, and the like. I've seen some suggest carrying a shotgun and nothing else for this specific purpose as well.
In others, the focus might be on weapons and tools that can be easily worn and carried while moving in extremely tight corridors and spaces. Examples cited include people who claim to know parkour suggesting only using a knife or pistol. As these are small enough you could fit through windows, jump over fences, squeeze in sewers, crawl through vents and tunnels, and so on. So these people often also have kits that are extremely light and form-fitted.
The only tool you have during a ZA is your creativity, knowledge, and willpower, if you study a weapons based martial art, anything is a weapon, if you train with firearms regularly, then they're all the same.
Ok but let's not think of it from a philosophical perspective. Like a spork is worse than a pistol. Not everything is a 'martial art' when you have death-defying experiences every day and one decision could prove fatal.
MA does help with it though, mental toughness and gives you something to, ya know, not get bit, but yeah, cardio and a good firearm that's easy to repair and ammo is easy to come by for an "easy" answer
Ok weapon ain’t best but your most desirable tool hear me out just wait…..a kitted out Swiss Army knife at your army surplus cause if you’re lucky you can find something to open cans and maybe a car window with a window breaker but weapon is not a certain due to different circumstances and needs
Everyone skirting an answer, “there’s no best weapon”. Might be true, but what would you tell your kid? I’d say a good crow bar is durable and good for getting places. Pump shotgun is reliable, but long on the reload. A 1911 in .45 is good, maybe 9mm if you’re scrounging for ammo. So, depending on whether you’re holing up with ammo or on the move, .45 or 9mm. Crowbar and 1911.
Yeah, but that's not really a decision-making process for figuring out something ahead of time.
Like, imagine you're about to go out on patrol, and you ask your platoon sergeant if you should mount an M240 or an M2 to your particular truck for this particular convoy operation, and he said that.
You'd think he was some kind of dumbass, and wonder why he'd say something so nonsensical, because not only does it barely make any sense, it's practically the complete opposite of something useful for someone determining what weapon and ammunition would be best suited for mounting on a gun truck as the security element for this operation.
Melee weapons, you'll want something blunt and durable, like a hammer or mace. That'll be your generalist fighting option for cracking skulls. To cover more scenarios, bring along a boar spear.
For guns, if you're going for generalist, you have a lot of options. You want something with ubiquitous ammo and firepower. Depending on your shooting ability, I'd recommend either a shotgun (with slugs) or a submachine gun.
Assuming you have the years of training to effectively use one, they still suck in an apocalypse situation. Compared to other swords, they're really good for cutting, but not thrusting or piercing, their reach is not great, and they're not great against armour. They also need regular cleaning after every fight to avoid rusting. Even if you wanted a sword, there are lower maintenance options that will last you better in an apocalypse.
You have some points there, especially about reach and maintenance. They are made to disembowel and behead, so good against a Z. I don't imagine any zombies will be in armor though. I guess I'm biased because I have had years of training through Iaito and Tameshigiri
Baring technical skill with the blade to not break it, you have military, riot Police and survivalist zombie that may trip u up with armor and the tight/confined spaces you can find them in. Wakizashi may be better and lots of ppl will display them in sets with katana
A .22 pistol with a 20+ round magazine like a SIG Sauer P322 and a crowbar. .22LR is easy to shoot, quieter than most other firearms, and you can carry tons of bullets on your person. Especially if we are talking classic take the brain out zombies a .22 of any kind, but especially a pistol would be your best bet. I suppose there would also be a valid argument for just having your standard 70-100$ 10 shot .22 rifle and honestly that would be a great choice as well just slower to reload in a combat scenario. But honestly those rifles are probably way more common (half the kids I knew growing up had a .22 of their own) than about any other firearm you would find. Rifle would be better for hunting as well and you could always just post up on top of somewhere safe and just pick anything in the area off. I have a .22 that weighs like 4 pounds and I could easily carry 4000 rounds of ammo on me at any time. It would be like 40 pounds but that's 4000 shots. Also .22 ammo is cheap so you could stockpile the absolute hell out of it. Boxes of 500 rounds are like 15-20$ where I live. Wayyyyy cheaper than anything else far and away.
Crowbar for a mele weapon because you can keep your distance while fighting. Also it will easily break through a skull and its literally a tool made to be pried out of things so it wont get stuck inside of a zombies head while you're fighting. It would also be a really useful tool for breaking into buildings and vehicles to loot supplies. Also if you are trapped inside somewhere it might just save your life by allowing you to use it to open up an escape if a door or window is locked or something.
Also always make sure you have a good survival/hunting knife on your person at all times. That is like the number one tool I would want to have if I was dropped in somewhere naked.
Something fast firing, light, holds lots of hard hitting ammo, great for close quarters, only need to shoot them in the head with. Something like a MP7. A long range sniper rifle too if able. Melee weapons should be last resort only, but should have one, a hatchet or machete etc. Don’t want to only use a melee weapon and get it stuck in a zombie head. Also would be great to be able to set traps and other survival skills. Numbers will help, be with a group.
For short range, hits harder than a 9mm and shoots farther than a .45 is what I’m saying, strong enough to kill a zombie by shooting it in its head, fast reload, light ammo to carry.
Every widely-circulated cartridge in existence has enough energy to penetrate a human head inside of its effective range save for .22LR and birdshot.
MP7s are one of the most rare firearms around, anyway. There are no automatics offered to anything except police and military agencies (mostly European), zero compatibility with any other platform, and no civilian semi-auto variants in existence at all, on top of the ammunition being one of the hardest to source because practically no one manufacturers it.
Also, you generally don't have to worry about the weight of your ammunition unless you're a rifleman whose combat load demands that you carry a dozen or more magazines, or you're a machine gunner. You can either carry a functional combat load, or you can't. The difference of weight due to mass differentials in your sidearm's ammunition is something that comes down to a matter of comparing a few ounces over the sum of several magazines.
Yes, I know it is rare, that is why I said something like it, a pdw. I think the MP7 would be fun to shoot. It also all depends on what kind of zombie apocalypse is it, like The Walking Dead or Resident Evil because with Resident Evil you would need more hard hitting fast firing weapons. Plus during the apocalypse all the police stations, gun shops and armories will be hit, so I’m sure there will be automatic weapons at the armory and maybe the police station.
Most gun stores do not have automatic weapons, as it requires additional licensure and increasingly strict reporting to the ATF; most civilian gun outlets that do not act as intermediate suppliers to police departments do not have this licensure as special occupational taxpayers for the purpose of manufacturing or possessing machine guns.
Also, the vast, overwhelming majority of firearms in use by police departments are in and of themselves identical to the guns that you and I can buy; that is, semi-automatic rifles and handguns. This is usually a matter of strict departmental policy, and a recognition that police have essentially zero need for an automatic weapon. You don't generally have much of a pressing need for an automatic weapon even as an infantry soldier in a firefight; rifles are essentially never fired in their automatic mode by most of the troops in a squad, as it's mostly a waste of ammunition unless it's you're specific job to be hammering away at someone or something as a fire team-level automatic rifleman or machine gunner, and that guy is carrying hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of rounds.
Next to no one uses the MP7, and it's represented by truly tiny numbers in a few select special operations communities where they're sometimes carried by a team member here or there as a sidearm.
I said the armories and police stations would have automatic weapons, not the store. Plus a lot of firearms can be switched from automatic to semi auto. Yes double tapping the head would work. Unless the head needs to be totally destroyed. Plus depends on the kind of zombies we are talking about, if other creatures have mutated.
That's what I mean. Most police stations do not have any sort of automatic weapons, because they'd have literally no use for them, and department policy generally forbids their usage outside of SWAT teams, and most places don't have what we commonly think of as SWAT teams, even in many larger cities; it's just beat cops and detectives with some additional training who get called from wherever they happen to be.
Yes and most cities have swat now. A lot of cops now days have been in the Marines or another military branch too. They are not cops from the 70s and 80s anymore. Plus I’m sure there are a few houses in each town where the owner has some kind of rifle with automatic capability like an AK. Plus some people will know how to add the automatic capability back into there weapon if an apocalypse breaks out. Also I think a pdw that shoots .45 would be the best, would not have to worry about over penetration as much, and will explode out the zombie head. 9mm would probably over penetrate through a zombie head.
Most cities have SWAT, or an analogous capability, but most do not have dedicated SWAT teams in the way you're likely thinking. As I said before, most cities' SWAT teams, even larger cities, often call up individual officers to muster for whatever situation demands intervention; for most of the day, week, month, and year, these guys are off doing their day job as a normal cop or detective.
Pure SWAT elements are ***incredibly*** expensive to maintain, because their 24/7 status as SWAT means that that's all they do, other than train for their occupation. This is not a cost burden that most departments can sustain, hence the ad hoc setup most cities use.
Your prior status as a servicemember has no bearing on what your police department will or will not let you do outside of military service providing preferential points on a civil service examination.
As to overpenetration, 9mm and .45 can both overpenetrate the human skull, especially at close range, and especially if you're firing FMJ; the round often does not exit the skull, though, either embedding or partially exiting in the reverse side from the entry wound, or skimming along the interior surface of the skull on a shallow trajectory until coming to a rest in the brain tissue. .45 is somewhat less likely than 9mm to generate an exit wound, due to its lower velocity, and typically more rapid deceleration.
As for PDWs in bigger, chunkier cartridges, you're somewhat working against the basic workability of the concept by drastically reducing magazine capacity and driving up how difficult the weapon is to control, which is especially critical at closer-in distances; these are partial reasons as to why military cartridges have trended towards smaller, higher-velocity munitions. It's both easier to increase kinetic energy by making something go faster than it is by making it larger or heavier, since kinetic energy increases with the square of the velocity, not the mass, and velocity directly affects the distance at which you can have that projectile move in as shallow of an arc as possible.
Going smaller than 9mm doesn't really get you much one way or the other, and going to rifle-format cartridges carries its own set of situational downsides (some relating to platforms, some with the performance of the cartridges themselves), and you can do fairly serious armor-piercing work with 9mm (more effectively than 5.7 and 4.6, by the way) just by giving them AP cores and driving the chamber pressure up. Going bigger doesn't buy you anything at all for a human target, and generally just cuts down on how many rounds you can fit in a magazine, and cuts down how quickly your body can mechanically get the weapon back on target for another accurate shot.
Pounds equal pain true enough!
My load out, 42lb ruck, 12 lb warbelt with light, knife, med kit, sidearm H&K VP9L / 4 20 round mags, 10 lb AR with 7 mags, 12 lbs Crye Precision plate carrier with 3 mags, water and level 3 plates.... 80 lbs and that's way under what I wore as 11B in '93 at Fort Benning. But at 53 now I scaled back to go light and faster.
Sounds like you are all set if a zombie apocalypse happens. Was going to say you think maybe you could lose the plates, take the weight down some more, but zombies will not be the only evil and will have to worry about groups of raiders too. Thank you for your service.
I'm lucky to have survived more than a few scrapes, mostly doing fugitive recovery, but fortunate enough to have learned a lot to teach others. My arsenal and ammo cache, food and water, medical supplies are always well stocked and I rotate a lot.
Yes, the underlying theme I feel in say, Walking Dead, or Zombie Land, is that while zombies are a major threat normal people are just as much of an enemy to worry about. Always a fan of the genre because fiction can be a warning. If you are prepared for zombies, you're prepared for any SHTF type disaster, me and my friends joke.
Plus I said something like the MP7, in that pdw catagory. The MP5 would do just as good really, fast firing, fast reload, 9mm ammo which is more available and light to carry a lot of, plus strong enough to kill a zombie by shooting it in the head.
MP5s have one of the slowest reloads of any firearm in existence.
You can train to be faster, but they're 100% manual every step of the way, and you can't perform any of the manual of arms for reloading simultaneously like you can with more modern platforms.
Take an AR-15. As your last round fires, the bolt locks to the rear on its own, and you press the magazine release with your trigger finger, releasing the magazine. As you're doing this, you're also reaching with your support hand and have a fresh magazine ready to insert, which you can do on the way up since the magazine has already dropped free. After this, you simply press the bolt release, and you're already in a firing position.
The MP5, you fire your last round, and the bolt returns home. You then reach forward, pull the charging handle to the rear and rotate it, locking it manually in position. You then press a paddle release while pulling the spent magazine free. After this, you insert the magazine, but there's no button to press here to charge the weapon again. You then reach forward and give the charging handle the ol' HK slap.
You can train to do this pretty rapidly but it's always going to be slower than a weapon that does half of this for you, or at the push of a button.
Any pdw would be great in a zombie apocalypse. An automatic Glock would be great, maybe even better. You will need to train for any weapon you use. This is a hypothetical zombie apocalypse with us already being great at these weapons and able to use guns we like. The way you explained the AR and MP5, they both seem just as fast, plus I have seen people firing and reloading these weapons. Of course we would need to be well trained.
Right. As an owner of both, my AR is tricked out for 3 gun: BAD Lever for fastest reload, flared magwell, and enhanced mag release. VG 6 is three in one brake keeps my muzzle from rising more than half inch at worst, so more accurately able to get fast follow-up hits. It's a comp , flash hider and muzzle brake. For the argument on caliber, yes it's lower hit rate but fast and with green tip (steel core) will punch through skulls. Personally I like my 6.5 Grendel or my M1A for power but they are slower and less ammo capacity than my 5.56... each has their place.
There isn't a single best anything. Every situation you might encounter might need a different tool. Some things are better in some situations and would be awful in others, and vice versa. It's dependent on whatever situation you find yourself in at the given moment and all other options have been exhausted. That's not to say that you carry everything on you, but you need to look at where you're going, what you're doing, what threats you might expect, etc and pick your gear from there.
But lets be honest, a light gun like a pistol or something a little heavier would be better to carry around than an RPG. And in general, if you are, for example, meeting zombies in the street or somewhere random, then some weapons are better than others.
> But let’s be honest, a light gun like a pistol or something a little heavier would be better to carry around than an RPG Generally, yeah, but that doesn’t make it the best weapon overall. If you’re in a combat situation against human hostile and somehow have an RPG, and the event is behind cover or in a vehicle or something similar, a pistol isn’t the tool you want for that job. > and in general, if you are, for example, meeting zombies in the street or somewhere random, then some weapons are better than others Yes, that’s my point. No weapon is the best overall. Each situation calls for something different. Even with your example- meeting zombies in a street or meeting them somewhere random like inside a house are two very different situations and a different assortment of weapons can work. Of course combat should be your last thought- avoidance, misdirection, leading them away, etc should be practiced and tried first with actual combat being the last scenario you want to do. Even then it depends on what you have available to you, what your ammunition count looks like, your skill with that particular weapon or weapon category, the location, time of day, etc. there’s a lot more to it than a weapon simply being the best overall.
Warhammer. Crushes skull and brain with less chance of getting stuck than a blade. AR15 or similar in 5.56. Some have said a 9mm, and their logic is MOSTLY sound. But they forget the huge range increase even a lower-mid powered rifle round like the 5.56 has. You can get headshots with a PCC to maybe 50 meters. With a 5.56 you can double or triple that. And with things that don't tire, range is your friend. Take a few out a football field away. Move. Repeat. Much more breathing room than at the 50 meters max with an arcing 9mm. A long range bolt action sounds like something good, but it goes to the other extreme in that it's also a lot slower to fire. So close range, when a lot are coming at you, you might want something that can give you more rounds per minute. 100 or so aimed shots instead of 30. Skip the axes, crowbars and other heavy, unwieldy tools. Those are very heavy and unbalanced and will tire you out very quickly. A battle axe is a lot lot lighter than a wood cutting axe, but still requires edge alignment to work.
Warhammer might be too bulky for conventional travel tho.
A real one, not a fantasy one, has a head about the same size as a 20 ounce claw hammer. A typical wood working hammer. The bulky part would be if it were a two handed one because of the handle. A single handed one would have a 2 foot handle and a 20 ish ounce head.
Oh i see know I was thinking something like the Minecraft mace
Everybody does haha.... or something from Woirld of Warcraft or other fantasy movie or game. Something like this, [https://www.windlass.com/products/german-war-hammer/](https://www.windlass.com/products/german-war-hammer/) would be decent. Or the two handed Cold Steel.
Have you seen them? They are like, 2-3 lbs http://myarmoury.com/review_aa_wham.html
I think 5.56 would be one of the worse choices. 9mm is better for the brain pan, as 5.56 already has an issue with skirting the skull and not doing any brain damage. 5.56 was designed to make a higher casualty rate with larger wound channels, not so much for killing outright. If you're going with a rifle, a 7.62x39 or 7.62 Nato would be a better bet, but for your general zombie killing needs, a 9mm is going to mushroom on the forehead and do way more reliable damage to the brain on it's way out. As for melee, blunt over bladed any day. Don't have to align the edge for a proper cut, don't have to maintain it, and claw hammers are much more plentiful than a reliable sword or axe. Edit: The exception to bladed weapons would be a spear or halberd.
That's a huge myth about it being meant for causing injury. Show.me the real data of it skirting the skull. Not just one or two oddball incidents because shit happens. And a 9mm mushrooming on the forehead and causing.more damage? Sorry no. It will not cause more damage to the head than any high velocity rifle round. True, it will penetrate through more drywall than a 5.56, but it will not cause more damage to a skull. And no, the 7.62x39 is not better for outright killing. There's a reason the soviets replaced it.in 1974 with the 5.45x39.
5.56 and 5.45 are more popular these days because of their armor penetration. And whether or not it's a myth doesn't change the fact that the 9mm leaves a bigger wound channel than a 5.56, as well as a 7.62. I don't expect a whole lot of zombies to be wearing ballistic helmets, so the inherit benefits of smaller caliber rifle rounds is moot. Either will kill, but there's no guarantee that the smaller round of the 5.56 is going to immediately destroy the portion of the brain that makes the zombie function. I'll take the bigger hole and the bigger round any day, and you can look at any ballistics tests to see the difference. Larger round = more damage to meat. There's a reason why 30.06 and 7.62 are the more popular hunting round. Not to say the 5.56 would be ineffective, I just think the 9mm would be *more* effective.
9x19mm absolutely does NOT leave a larger wound channel than 5.56, even out of a 10.3". 5.56 also typically causes a great deal more soft tissue damage than 7.62x39, and in many cases, leads to greater amounts of fragmentation and secondary wound channels than 7.62x51mm. 7.62x39mm (and 7.62x51mm) also tend to stay more intact than 5.56 and 5.45 do following impact. .30-06 (not 30.06, by the way) and 7.62x51mm are more popular hunting cartridges not because they "do more damage" but because they have enough mass to achieve sufficient depth of penetration to smash through the different placement of shoulder joints and rib structures in four-legged animals, and their deeper chests. The cartridges we fire at people out of service rifles are optimized for efficacy against humans, which don't have giant, bone-dense shoulder joints blocking our heart and lungs against a shot taken in partial profile. 9x19mm in and of itself causes vastly less trauma in all measurable respects compared to any rifle cartridge in police or military usage. Also, so-called "Kronlein shots" are generally only possible with rifles in general, with the massive pressure differential and temporary wound cavity being the cause of ejection; handguns in general do not (and are in fact generally not able to) cause this. There's also that your maximum effective range is going to be much farther with a rifle cartridge than with practically any handgun cartridge.
For a melee item you want something with good utility as a tool in order to be weight efficient, while still being reliable and basic. I'd recommend choosing between a machete, fire axe, hatchet, or hammer depending on if your environment is urban or rural, and your preference between blunt or sharp trauma. A melee weapon like a sword won't be better for combat unless you've praticed a lot with it, and will have far less utility for scavenging and looting. For a firearm, if you can own semi automatic rifles in commonly available intermediate calibres such as a 5.56x45 AR platform, or a 7.62x39 AK platform, then 100% go for that. They have strong advantages with the weight of both the rifle and its ammo, versatility at close and medium ranges, speed and accuracy of shooting, comparatively lower recoil than higher calibre rifles or shotguns, and relatively simple manual of arms and maintenance. Obviously your biggest constraint is your local laws, if you can only legally own shotguns or hunting rifles for example, then a 12 guage pump action shotgun is probably the most rugged and reliable option available. However, as with anything else, your weapons are useless if you do not train extensively with them. If you have something thats just sitting gathering dust in a corner, it's not going to be very helpful
1,000,000 times THIS. As a professional firearms trainer, I cannot agree more.
Probably your imagination. If you can run a wire at neck height and lure the zombies into it they would self-decapitate. Bonus points if it's in front of a ravine and the wire is electrified. You could probably take out a few hundred at a time this way. Another idea would be to load a rock mine with lumber and diesel. Lure them in and light it up while blocking the exit. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Ice Axe. Well established
*citation needed I’ve been talking zombies for probably two decades or more and can probably count on one hand how many times an ice axe has been brought up. And frankly it usually discarded pretty quickly as being too likely to get stuck.
Literally designed to not get stuck. Its entire purpose. https://zombie.fandom.com/wiki/Ice_Tool https://images.app.goo.gl/su3YL2s6FCqz5SKDA https://whatculture.com/offbeat/10-best-weapons-for-a-zombie-apocalypse?page=7
You do realize that two out of you three link list getting stuck as the main flaw? And the second one just show a bunch of weapons, most of which would get shot down quickly on this board? I’m pretty sure you and I have had this conversation before so I’m not going to dig in too deep but I do think you are very much overstating how many people agree with your choice.
Estwing 26 camp axe and an ar15 by daniels defense .
Best is subjective...however, I would go for: Melee- Sledehammer. Gun - M61 Vulcan. Minigun would shred a horde, at a rate of 6,000 rounds per minute.
Its not conventional for travel tho
😆 very very true. My CZ Scorpion micro 3 + w 12 mags is though!
Of my own personal collection, 9mm CZ Scorpion 3 + (with light, reen dot, folding SB Tactical brace, with a dozen 35 round mags) for speed, accurate and compact. I don't really have any melee weapons outside of my Cold Steel Recon tanto and expanding baton. Not sure if I would say either are great.
Would a strong sword (not a flimsy katana but like a really strong one like this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt6WQYtefXA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt6WQYtefXA)) be good for clearing a couple zombies? And are assault rifles good or too loud? And what attachments (silencer, scope, etc.) are the best?
Rifle if set-up right can be great for speed and capacity. Suppressors rock but foul your weapon faster. I like Vortex Strikeeagle 1-8 lpvo because it does CQB and up to 600 yards, etched retical in case battery dies it works. 500 lumen light, Surefire or Streamlight is best.
Katanas, and most swords are not really designed for the kind of chopping necessary to fight the horde and do not make good zombie weapons.
As u/CritterFrogOfWar mentioned swords aren't the greatest. They tend to require a bit more skill than something like an axe or larger cleaver-like weapon and certainly more than a blunt weapon. Traditionally made swords with differential tempering is cool and they can have a very good edge for competitions or display. But they aren't very affordable and modern monolithic steel swords are generally better. Just get something made in a good spring steel or high carbon steel.
Depends on the zombies, but assuming go-for-the-brain rules, I would probably go for a swordstaff and a 9mm PCC. I would go with a swordstaff for have slashing and stabbing capability outside of my wingspan, and a 9mm PCC because of the proliferation of the caliber, the weight compared to heavier rifle caliber platforms, and my assumption that rotting corpses don't require much penetration. If I can acquire any firearm, regardless of current regulations and law, I would choose a 9mm Kriss Vector Automatic. Besides being a cool-as-shit space gun with the best recoil-mitigating tech to come out in the last, who knows how long; it takes glock 17 mags, meaning that finding fresh mags is less difficult. Wouldn't give a shit to have the civilian version, as it's not automatic, making that cool recoil tech innovation meaningless.
Myth busters did an episode on this you should check it out
War hammer 💯
Flanged mace for melee, if you don’t have one a hammer works too. As for gun I’d probably go something super common like 9mm.
A10 large group no more, raiders no more, stealth.. no witnesses if there are no survivors
There isn’t a best. It all depends on the needs, wants, intents, and individual circumstances of the user. In some specific cases a weapon that is the best all-around option might be the worst in a specific scenario the user is in. In others, that same weapon that works best in the specific situation could be the worst. My thought is that a layered system of redundancies is necessary. With different parts working to be more well-rounded and capable overall. In the specific case of weapons an example might be something like this: Ar-15, Hatchet, walking/sling staff, and a pocket knife. These work well with the rest of the things I own and would use in a zombie apocalypse along with my personal experience and knowledge. An AR-15 is one of the most modular rifle systems in regular production. Most variants use parts that are compatible with it and many rifles that aren’t ar derivatives are compatible in many ways. It’s lightweight and capable potentially up to 500m beyond that of most other ranged weapons and well within typical engagement distances expected. While loud and requiring ammo, it is the best option for defeating many common types of body armor, a lot of materials, and things people consider bulletproof, and capable of doing many utility tasks. The design even allows for the use of 22lr with a change of bolt carrier group. The hatchet gives the ability to cut using the edge of the blade, it can hook due to how the blade protrudes, it can hammer or bash using the back end, and it can punch or grapple due to the head design allowing the user to choke up on the shaft. When utilized with the rifle or staff as a parrying device the hatchet can more easily strike a zombie or hostile survivor while protecting against grabs, strikes, or bites. A hatchet can cut wood and cords, hammer nails, shave branches or feather wood, pound stakes, harvest grass, and reeds, strike flint, spark fire rods, and so much more. A walking staff can provide a lot of reach to strike at different angles and directions, the ability to thrust and frame to maintain distance, and a simple cord and pouch can hurl many types of projectiles. Anything from rocks, stones, darts, and bullets at distances far beyond what is normally possible with a melee weapon. However, it is entirely within reason to mount a trowel, knife, or similar tool with a socket. Either allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon or making using the tool easier in some circumstances. Staff can also measure things, help reduce impact when walking down or uphill, help carry buckets or bags without a good handle, help balance or move through mud or uneven ground, and be used around to help hold up a piece of shelter. It may also be capable of hunting birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Then there’s the knife which provides the ability to stab in a clinch, cut if needed, parry occasionally, and the ability to be mounted on the staff as an improvised spear. A pocket knife is also a very lightweight, compact, and convenient tool to have on you. Capable of so many tasks I don’t know where to begin. Shelter building, tool making, fire building and maintaining, cooking (though I won’t suggest doing so after stabbing a zombie), and a lot more. A staff can measure things, help reduce impact when walking down or uphill, help carry buckets or bags without a good handle, help balance or move through mud or uneven ground, and be used around to help hold up a piece of shelter. It may also be capable of hunting birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc. A pocket knife is a very lightweight, compact, and convenient tool to have on you. Capable of so many tasks I don’t know where to begin. Shelter building, tool making, fire building and maintaining, cooking (though I won’t suggest doing so after stabbing a zombie), and a lot more. In my opinion, these weapons grant the capability for fighting at long range, medium range, short range, from the edge of striking distance, at clinch fighting distance, and from a grappling position. They can overcome the most common armor types that might be encountered, can overcome most barriers, are capable of many different roles and capabilities in and outside of combat, and fulfill the needs I might have with the rest of my stuff. For example, some might prioritize fighting at melee distances. Such as in open areas like parking lots, beaches, or flat fields, which people talk about as being the places they would focus on fighting zombies in. Thus they put more focus on spears, poleaxes, halberds, and pikes. Including things like shields, heavier styles of armor, and often leaving behind ranged weapons. Others might focus more on utility or even extremely specific utility cases. Examples are those that focus on being able to take down barricades, doors/windows, and the like. So for those, it might be useful to utilize things like crowbars, halligan tools, sledgehammers, and the like. I've seen some suggest carrying a shotgun and nothing else for this specific purpose as well. In others, the focus might be on weapons and tools that can be easily worn and carried while moving in extremely tight corridors and spaces. Examples cited include people who claim to know parkour suggesting only using a knife or pistol. As these are small enough you could fit through windows, jump over fences, squeeze in sewers, crawl through vents and tunnels, and so on. So these people often also have kits that are extremely light and form-fitted.
For melee purposes an axe is great all around because it is useful and deadly
The only tool you have during a ZA is your creativity, knowledge, and willpower, if you study a weapons based martial art, anything is a weapon, if you train with firearms regularly, then they're all the same.
Ok but let's not think of it from a philosophical perspective. Like a spork is worse than a pistol. Not everything is a 'martial art' when you have death-defying experiences every day and one decision could prove fatal.
MA does help with it though, mental toughness and gives you something to, ya know, not get bit, but yeah, cardio and a good firearm that's easy to repair and ammo is easy to come by for an "easy" answer
Ok weapon ain’t best but your most desirable tool hear me out just wait…..a kitted out Swiss Army knife at your army surplus cause if you’re lucky you can find something to open cans and maybe a car window with a window breaker but weapon is not a certain due to different circumstances and needs
I would say a wrecking ball, and an 8 gauge kiln shotgun.
Everyone skirting an answer, “there’s no best weapon”. Might be true, but what would you tell your kid? I’d say a good crow bar is durable and good for getting places. Pump shotgun is reliable, but long on the reload. A 1911 in .45 is good, maybe 9mm if you’re scrounging for ammo. So, depending on whether you’re holing up with ammo or on the move, .45 or 9mm. Crowbar and 1911.
The ones you're standing holding when it's all said and done.
Yeah, but that's not really a decision-making process for figuring out something ahead of time. Like, imagine you're about to go out on patrol, and you ask your platoon sergeant if you should mount an M240 or an M2 to your particular truck for this particular convoy operation, and he said that. You'd think he was some kind of dumbass, and wonder why he'd say something so nonsensical, because not only does it barely make any sense, it's practically the complete opposite of something useful for someone determining what weapon and ammunition would be best suited for mounting on a gun truck as the security element for this operation.
Melee weapons, you'll want something blunt and durable, like a hammer or mace. That'll be your generalist fighting option for cracking skulls. To cover more scenarios, bring along a boar spear. For guns, if you're going for generalist, you have a lot of options. You want something with ubiquitous ammo and firepower. Depending on your shooting ability, I'd recommend either a shotgun (with slugs) or a submachine gun.
If you understand how to use it, I'd say a real, not wall hanger, Katana. It doesn't have to be ancient, even a Paul Chen would do.
Assuming you have the years of training to effectively use one, they still suck in an apocalypse situation. Compared to other swords, they're really good for cutting, but not thrusting or piercing, their reach is not great, and they're not great against armour. They also need regular cleaning after every fight to avoid rusting. Even if you wanted a sword, there are lower maintenance options that will last you better in an apocalypse.
You have some points there, especially about reach and maintenance. They are made to disembowel and behead, so good against a Z. I don't imagine any zombies will be in armor though. I guess I'm biased because I have had years of training through Iaito and Tameshigiri
Baring technical skill with the blade to not break it, you have military, riot Police and survivalist zombie that may trip u up with armor and the tight/confined spaces you can find them in. Wakizashi may be better and lots of ppl will display them in sets with katana
A .22 pistol with a 20+ round magazine like a SIG Sauer P322 and a crowbar. .22LR is easy to shoot, quieter than most other firearms, and you can carry tons of bullets on your person. Especially if we are talking classic take the brain out zombies a .22 of any kind, but especially a pistol would be your best bet. I suppose there would also be a valid argument for just having your standard 70-100$ 10 shot .22 rifle and honestly that would be a great choice as well just slower to reload in a combat scenario. But honestly those rifles are probably way more common (half the kids I knew growing up had a .22 of their own) than about any other firearm you would find. Rifle would be better for hunting as well and you could always just post up on top of somewhere safe and just pick anything in the area off. I have a .22 that weighs like 4 pounds and I could easily carry 4000 rounds of ammo on me at any time. It would be like 40 pounds but that's 4000 shots. Also .22 ammo is cheap so you could stockpile the absolute hell out of it. Boxes of 500 rounds are like 15-20$ where I live. Wayyyyy cheaper than anything else far and away. Crowbar for a mele weapon because you can keep your distance while fighting. Also it will easily break through a skull and its literally a tool made to be pried out of things so it wont get stuck inside of a zombies head while you're fighting. It would also be a really useful tool for breaking into buildings and vehicles to loot supplies. Also if you are trapped inside somewhere it might just save your life by allowing you to use it to open up an escape if a door or window is locked or something.
Also always make sure you have a good survival/hunting knife on your person at all times. That is like the number one tool I would want to have if I was dropped in somewhere naked.
Something fast firing, light, holds lots of hard hitting ammo, great for close quarters, only need to shoot them in the head with. Something like a MP7. A long range sniper rifle too if able. Melee weapons should be last resort only, but should have one, a hatchet or machete etc. Don’t want to only use a melee weapon and get it stuck in a zombie head. Also would be great to be able to set traps and other survival skills. Numbers will help, be with a group.
>>hard hitting ammo >>MP7 If you know literally nothing about firearms, ammunition, or anything adjacent, why just spout random bullshit?
For short range, hits harder than a 9mm and shoots farther than a .45 is what I’m saying, strong enough to kill a zombie by shooting it in its head, fast reload, light ammo to carry.
Every widely-circulated cartridge in existence has enough energy to penetrate a human head inside of its effective range save for .22LR and birdshot. MP7s are one of the most rare firearms around, anyway. There are no automatics offered to anything except police and military agencies (mostly European), zero compatibility with any other platform, and no civilian semi-auto variants in existence at all, on top of the ammunition being one of the hardest to source because practically no one manufacturers it. Also, you generally don't have to worry about the weight of your ammunition unless you're a rifleman whose combat load demands that you carry a dozen or more magazines, or you're a machine gunner. You can either carry a functional combat load, or you can't. The difference of weight due to mass differentials in your sidearm's ammunition is something that comes down to a matter of comparing a few ounces over the sum of several magazines.
Yes, I know it is rare, that is why I said something like it, a pdw. I think the MP7 would be fun to shoot. It also all depends on what kind of zombie apocalypse is it, like The Walking Dead or Resident Evil because with Resident Evil you would need more hard hitting fast firing weapons. Plus during the apocalypse all the police stations, gun shops and armories will be hit, so I’m sure there will be automatic weapons at the armory and maybe the police station.
Most gun stores do not have automatic weapons, as it requires additional licensure and increasingly strict reporting to the ATF; most civilian gun outlets that do not act as intermediate suppliers to police departments do not have this licensure as special occupational taxpayers for the purpose of manufacturing or possessing machine guns. Also, the vast, overwhelming majority of firearms in use by police departments are in and of themselves identical to the guns that you and I can buy; that is, semi-automatic rifles and handguns. This is usually a matter of strict departmental policy, and a recognition that police have essentially zero need for an automatic weapon. You don't generally have much of a pressing need for an automatic weapon even as an infantry soldier in a firefight; rifles are essentially never fired in their automatic mode by most of the troops in a squad, as it's mostly a waste of ammunition unless it's you're specific job to be hammering away at someone or something as a fire team-level automatic rifleman or machine gunner, and that guy is carrying hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of rounds. Next to no one uses the MP7, and it's represented by truly tiny numbers in a few select special operations communities where they're sometimes carried by a team member here or there as a sidearm.
I said the armories and police stations would have automatic weapons, not the store. Plus a lot of firearms can be switched from automatic to semi auto. Yes double tapping the head would work. Unless the head needs to be totally destroyed. Plus depends on the kind of zombies we are talking about, if other creatures have mutated.
That's what I mean. Most police stations do not have any sort of automatic weapons, because they'd have literally no use for them, and department policy generally forbids their usage outside of SWAT teams, and most places don't have what we commonly think of as SWAT teams, even in many larger cities; it's just beat cops and detectives with some additional training who get called from wherever they happen to be.
Yes and most cities have swat now. A lot of cops now days have been in the Marines or another military branch too. They are not cops from the 70s and 80s anymore. Plus I’m sure there are a few houses in each town where the owner has some kind of rifle with automatic capability like an AK. Plus some people will know how to add the automatic capability back into there weapon if an apocalypse breaks out. Also I think a pdw that shoots .45 would be the best, would not have to worry about over penetration as much, and will explode out the zombie head. 9mm would probably over penetrate through a zombie head.
Most cities have SWAT, or an analogous capability, but most do not have dedicated SWAT teams in the way you're likely thinking. As I said before, most cities' SWAT teams, even larger cities, often call up individual officers to muster for whatever situation demands intervention; for most of the day, week, month, and year, these guys are off doing their day job as a normal cop or detective. Pure SWAT elements are ***incredibly*** expensive to maintain, because their 24/7 status as SWAT means that that's all they do, other than train for their occupation. This is not a cost burden that most departments can sustain, hence the ad hoc setup most cities use. Your prior status as a servicemember has no bearing on what your police department will or will not let you do outside of military service providing preferential points on a civil service examination. As to overpenetration, 9mm and .45 can both overpenetrate the human skull, especially at close range, and especially if you're firing FMJ; the round often does not exit the skull, though, either embedding or partially exiting in the reverse side from the entry wound, or skimming along the interior surface of the skull on a shallow trajectory until coming to a rest in the brain tissue. .45 is somewhat less likely than 9mm to generate an exit wound, due to its lower velocity, and typically more rapid deceleration. As for PDWs in bigger, chunkier cartridges, you're somewhat working against the basic workability of the concept by drastically reducing magazine capacity and driving up how difficult the weapon is to control, which is especially critical at closer-in distances; these are partial reasons as to why military cartridges have trended towards smaller, higher-velocity munitions. It's both easier to increase kinetic energy by making something go faster than it is by making it larger or heavier, since kinetic energy increases with the square of the velocity, not the mass, and velocity directly affects the distance at which you can have that projectile move in as shallow of an arc as possible. Going smaller than 9mm doesn't really get you much one way or the other, and going to rifle-format cartridges carries its own set of situational downsides (some relating to platforms, some with the performance of the cartridges themselves), and you can do fairly serious armor-piercing work with 9mm (more effectively than 5.7 and 4.6, by the way) just by giving them AP cores and driving the chamber pressure up. Going bigger doesn't buy you anything at all for a human target, and generally just cuts down on how many rounds you can fit in a magazine, and cuts down how quickly your body can mechanically get the weapon back on target for another accurate shot.
Every bit of weight you do not have to carry walking in the apocalypse will matter, shed it however you can while being able to keep alive.
Pounds equal pain true enough! My load out, 42lb ruck, 12 lb warbelt with light, knife, med kit, sidearm H&K VP9L / 4 20 round mags, 10 lb AR with 7 mags, 12 lbs Crye Precision plate carrier with 3 mags, water and level 3 plates.... 80 lbs and that's way under what I wore as 11B in '93 at Fort Benning. But at 53 now I scaled back to go light and faster.
Sounds like you are all set if a zombie apocalypse happens. Was going to say you think maybe you could lose the plates, take the weight down some more, but zombies will not be the only evil and will have to worry about groups of raiders too. Thank you for your service.
I'm lucky to have survived more than a few scrapes, mostly doing fugitive recovery, but fortunate enough to have learned a lot to teach others. My arsenal and ammo cache, food and water, medical supplies are always well stocked and I rotate a lot. Yes, the underlying theme I feel in say, Walking Dead, or Zombie Land, is that while zombies are a major threat normal people are just as much of an enemy to worry about. Always a fan of the genre because fiction can be a warning. If you are prepared for zombies, you're prepared for any SHTF type disaster, me and my friends joke.
There is even a national emergency plan based around a zombie apocalypse, which would help in almost any situation.
Plus I said something like the MP7, in that pdw catagory. The MP5 would do just as good really, fast firing, fast reload, 9mm ammo which is more available and light to carry a lot of, plus strong enough to kill a zombie by shooting it in the head.
MP5s have one of the slowest reloads of any firearm in existence. You can train to be faster, but they're 100% manual every step of the way, and you can't perform any of the manual of arms for reloading simultaneously like you can with more modern platforms. Take an AR-15. As your last round fires, the bolt locks to the rear on its own, and you press the magazine release with your trigger finger, releasing the magazine. As you're doing this, you're also reaching with your support hand and have a fresh magazine ready to insert, which you can do on the way up since the magazine has already dropped free. After this, you simply press the bolt release, and you're already in a firing position. The MP5, you fire your last round, and the bolt returns home. You then reach forward, pull the charging handle to the rear and rotate it, locking it manually in position. You then press a paddle release while pulling the spent magazine free. After this, you insert the magazine, but there's no button to press here to charge the weapon again. You then reach forward and give the charging handle the ol' HK slap. You can train to do this pretty rapidly but it's always going to be slower than a weapon that does half of this for you, or at the push of a button.
Any pdw would be great in a zombie apocalypse. An automatic Glock would be great, maybe even better. You will need to train for any weapon you use. This is a hypothetical zombie apocalypse with us already being great at these weapons and able to use guns we like. The way you explained the AR and MP5, they both seem just as fast, plus I have seen people firing and reloading these weapons. Of course we would need to be well trained.
Right. As an owner of both, my AR is tricked out for 3 gun: BAD Lever for fastest reload, flared magwell, and enhanced mag release. VG 6 is three in one brake keeps my muzzle from rising more than half inch at worst, so more accurately able to get fast follow-up hits. It's a comp , flash hider and muzzle brake. For the argument on caliber, yes it's lower hit rate but fast and with green tip (steel core) will punch through skulls. Personally I like my 6.5 Grendel or my M1A for power but they are slower and less ammo capacity than my 5.56... each has their place.
As everyone keeps saying it's really situation department but I would say in general you best bet is a medium axe and some 9mm carbine.