I'll only panic if it's capable of unleashing Cranberries songs.

Lt. Cheese Weasel: Anything is possible at xombie.com?

Unexpected, yet excellent.

Nicely done.

Walking Dead thread?

shotguns are terrible for killing zombies. what good does a scattergun do you against something that you have to shoot in the head? even if you're using a shotgun with slugs instead of shot, it's overkill for destroying a brain. the most i could see using would be a .223 and even that seems excessive.

/currently writing a zombie novel

So what? I can shoot the rocket with my shotgun, thereby taking out multiple zombies with each slug. Or I could just pull out my nuclear-powered zombie-rocket jamming device, which I always keep around just in case, turn it on, and voila...zombie rockets can't home in on me and will explode harmlessly far away. Alternatively, I could just wave my magic pink ribbon in the air, and all zombies would turn to fairy dust.

It is fiction, folks. That means we can make it up as we go along without fear of breaking any rules. Because there are no rules.

Zombies = vampires = Calvinball.

They had this almost 20 years ago. It's last test flight one of the damn retractable landing legs failed and it fell over. There was no more funding to repair it and the whole program was cancelled. To think that if that stupid leg operated correctly, we could have 2nd or 3rd generation single stage orbiters operating today.

Link (new window)

Video of the flight test here (new window).

CapnBlues: shotguns are terrible for killing zombies. what good does a scattergun do you against something that you have to shoot in the head? even if you're using a shotgun with slugs instead of shot, it's overkill for destroying a brain. the most i could see using would be a .223 and even that seems excessive.

/currently writing a zombie novel

Shotgun perks:
Accuracy need not be great. A miss can also be debilitating. Can take off an arm or leg, or blow a body in half.(especially useful if your zombies are the fast type, or the type to bob/weave unpredictably).
Ammo will be more common than anything else in much of the US, available in any given store, even gas stations and grocery stores in the midwest.

It will also serve a dual purpose, in that it can be used to obtain...food. There's a reason shotguns are so widely used for hunting, and with decreased populations, there will be plenty of game.

Many a rifle will also have issues with how it hits. Sometimes they can hit the skull and skim around it on the outside, or give a straight through shot with little actual damage, or be next to useless at close range. An amateur will tend to be overconfident with a single-projectile firearm. Life isn't like the movies, targets are farking hard to hit for a vast majority of the populace, more so when running for your life and the target is trying to eat you. Unless you're using specialized shotguns, the lack of being fully automatic forces one to measure their shots somewhat, and not empty the weapon in 3 seconds and be proper farked.

Any weapon that's a good man stopper will work similarly on zombies. You take a zombie in the spine, or destroy musclemass, and it will lose most, if not all, mobility. Do that with a .223, and you NEED a skull penetrating(or eyeball) shot, each and every time. Those rounds, on zombies where organs are meaningless, being tapered as they are, will typically give flesh wounds only, unless you manage to find some hollow point or tumbling variant that will leave an exit hole 10x(or more).

No offense, but if you think shotguns are a bad idea for fighting zombies in general(they're actually the prime choice for people who just aren't good shots), it sounds like you're writing bad fan fiction and will have a horrible novel.

If you're writing a book that will generally draw geeks, you better get it right.

Ideally, you have a distance weapon(rifle, a regular .22 will actually be better than most rifles, very common, very light ammo, and precise enough, typically semi-auto they can hold many rounds), and a close weapon(Shotgun preferably[especially for novice users], as high power handguns can do well, they still require more skill), and some blades(A Bowie/tactical/survival knife for general purpose, a cleaver/panga/machete for heavy use, and maybe some smaller sharper things like couple of good folding knives for fine work/dressing animals).

As far as weapons go, the above will see you through most typical post-apocalyptic scenario's in the US. If you're dipping into Magic, zombies that eat food and heal off of "spirit" or "life force" or whatever, enjoy mediocrity. Just because you've got a poetic licence to say "They would be useless against my zombies" doesn't mean you should. I mean, look at Twilight, and the fairies in those books, and the much deserved mocking it gets.

Sure, maybe you want to be merely successful and not respected, that's cool, but don't waltz around here trying to act as if you actually know what you're talking about.

/hobby shootist
//not quite survivalist that requires serious money and/or serious crazy, I don't have either
///avid reader of this type of book, spewing fabricated realism only pisses readers off - If you're basing in reality, keep it real(physics and sciences (at least common basics) still hold true, make sure you check your "facts" so you don't sound like an idiot), or you ruin immersion.

Tip:
Spend a day at a range somewhere, shoot a fat pumpkin with a .22 a few times, then bigger rifles a couple times(you may find a rifle that delivers enough energy to the pumpkin itself to blow it up, if so, lucky you), then, if you didn't find a rifle round that doesn't simply pass through, a shotgun once(because that's all you'll need. After that you'll need a new pumpkin, because all that'll be left is slop and tiny bits of rind.)

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks is my personal holy book. I read it regularly, like any normal non-religious nutcase.

give me doughnuts: limboslam: They had this almost 20 years ago. It's last test flight one of the damn retractable landing legs failed and it fell over. There was no more funding to repair it and the whole program was cancelled. To think that that stupid leg operated if hand-jobs were passed around correctly, we could have 2nd or 3rd generation single stage orbiters operating today.

Link (new window)

This. It could have replaced the Shuttle, but the proper political dicks weren't sucked. Instead, we got the X-33 which never even had a prototype, and was cancelled in 2001.

Now we don't even have a manned space-flight program.

You're right. I'm modifying my original statement.