in the event of a Zompocalypse...

It's like I tell my kids all the time; if the zompocalypse happens, make sure you have an air rifle. 1) they are actually powerful and accurate enough to cause sufficient head trauma to take out the undead from a distance well outside the splatter zone 2) while not entirely silent, their report is not so loud that it will draw the undead for miles 3) they are the most efficient way to bag small game year round so you don't starve when your not slaying zombies 4) a thousand rounds of air rifle ammo is a heck of a lot lighter and easier to carry around than a thousand rounds of regular ammo.

Any other thoughtful suggestions on how to prepare?

Yes.

As I keep telling my wife and son, zompocalypse is never going to happen, it's a fictional happening, borne in the mind of some comic book writer.

So, chillax and stop wasting time worrying about it.

But in case I'm wrong, very much like Daryl in 'The Walking Dead', you couldn't go wrong with a crossbow. Well, as long as you have more arrows than there are zombies.

a reply to: olddognewtricks
I wouldn't suggest using air rifles as a defensive weapon. Strategically placed rat traps are an easy and very productive way to catch birds and squirrels and they are reusable.

a reply to: olddognewtricks
I like to carry around those bags of plastic picnic untensils. I remove the forks and spoons and just keep the plastic knives.

You can stab a zombie pretty easily in the face but the knife usually breaks when you try to remove it. Hence the bag of disposables.

Hope this helps.

a reply to: olddognewtricks

yes. Get a machete. If you need ranged weapons, use an arrow. If you want to be dramatic, use a sling.

I have some super swank air rifles. The kind that'll pop that plastic pellet through the lid of my old bbq pit. But they break all the time. The fully auto ones need battery chargers, but my "sniper" rifles are powered via an air pump inside the bolt action.

Still...ill take my machete and a decent compound bow.

How to prepare?

I'm still working on the virus to get it started.

I'm tired of waiting.

originally posted by: NowWhat
a reply to: olddognewtricks
I like to carry around those bags of plastic picnic untensils. I remove the forks and spoons and just keep the plastic knives.

You can stab a zombie pretty easily in the face but the knife usually breaks when you try to remove it. Hence the bag of disposables.

Hope this helps.

Naw. Too close, to easy to get bitten or get splattered.

a reply to: chiefsmom

Try splicing the "hijacking" sections of the DNA from Toxiplasma Gondii protozoa with the common cold virus.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

"Plastic pellet?" I was referring to the air rifles that shoot a metal pellet.

Machete, axe, spear, bow, never been into guns, bit boring imo, I daydream about this crap, end of the world, fighting zombies, who doesn't fantasize about this stuff ? lol (probably most people)

In reality, i'd probably not last as long as I like to imagine

a reply to: chiefsmom

Haha

Nice one!

a reply to: Brotherman

Indeed, at about one tenth the psi of a .22, an air rifle is not a not good defensive weapon - against humans. But we're not talking about that.

An air rifle can deliver an average of 2000 psi to a zombie's head. You could stand well within biting range and deliver that with a baseball bat or a hammer. Or you could stand twenty feet back and do likewise with an air rifle.

a reply to: olddognewtricks

you mean a bb gun/pellet gun.

Not airsoft.

In that case....maybe. Depends. CO2 are pretty powerful, but you have to have the cartridges.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Well, there are spring loaded designs. But there are also pneumatic versions where you use a hand-powered pump. The advantages of the latter are 1) no reliance on cartridges in a world gone to the zombies 2) multiple shots per pump, unlike spring loaded where you must essentially cock the gun for each shot.

Look on YouTube at the mods people do to the pellets themselves. It is cool, taking the "cap" from those revolver type cap guns, affix them to hollow point pellets loaded with fireworks "explosives", creating an explosive round on impact. Super glue a bb on to a hollowtip pellet and it gives it much more mass, giving deeper penetration into ballistic Gel. Incendiary, all kinds of crazy stuff. Some break barrel guns are well above 1000ft per second, and are quick to reload. I got my son a pump rifle that was cheap and it is 900fps, adding some mass slows it down but it could be useful... I'm with furry though, a big blade and a bow.

a reply to: olddognewtricks

The ones i grew up using maybe could kill a sparrow, perhaps a bigger bird if hit in the head. 3 to 5 pumps would fill the air pressure up (any more would just vent off to prevent damage).

My favorite one was my Daisy that was a single pump shot on a lever action. I loved that bb gun. You loaded it at the top of the barrel.

But if you got one of the CO2 with a pellet instead of a BB...that could really cause some damage.

I haven't shot a bb gun in years. Many, many years. Not sure what the technology provides for nowadays.

a reply to: wastedown
For all the many advantages of a good old bow and arrow, there is one EXTREME disadvantage: the learning curve.
To field a good archer who has combat level skills takes years of training and actually an entire culture devoted to the warrior ethos (think Camanches and Huns). Just get good enough to head-shot a shambling zombie would take about a year of regular practice. Having a gun could buy you that time if the apocalypse catches you by surprise.

Not that true living dead zombies are much of a possibility, I fear more a rabid strain like 28 days later... If it is actual dead walking zombies, I often wonder why my plan really hasn't made it to film. Chain mail, like a shark suit gloves included, and heading due north or due south depending on where in the world I am at the time. I don't imagine dead tissue to be to active or even capable of movement once you are in an area that is sub freezing and stays that way. I'll see y'all at the pole!

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
In that case....maybe. Depends.

Yeah, y'all are gonna need Depends taking a BB gun to a battlefield because britches will be soiled.

I'm old school... I want actual firepower and, when that runs out, I'll switch to my compound bow.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

compound bow is my first choice for a ranged weapon, for sure. Guns are great, but way too noisey in a TWD type scanario

machete for close quarters on a zombie. A baseball bat with nails through it for general protection against non zombies. Keep it simple....