Monday, October 31, 2011

Pistols.


Pistols:
Well, it depends.  Is it magazine-fed or does it have a revolving cylinder?  What will it fire?  How reliable is it?  Is its ammunition common where you are now and where you are going?  Is it accurate?  Can you handle the recoil? Some of these questions overlap a bit, but you still need to ask them, and more.
  What type of pistol are you thinking of?  Each has interesting advantages over the other: revolvers are reliable, have few moving parts, are easy to fix (compared to pistols), can chamber large rounds easily, and have a completely customizable grip, while pistols have high capacity, are almost as reliable as revolvers (some pistols more so than others), and are now used by more people.  Revolvers can be reloaded by hand much more easily than pistols, but a pistol can simply change magazines if one is available pre-filled.  If you want my opinion, I'm inclined to say that a pistol would be a better idea.  Pistols have a clear lead in time spent reloading versus ammunition replenished, so long as you have spare magazines.  They are also, as I said, becoming as reliable as revolvers.  And the spare parts issue isn't really that dire; if you take care of your pistol, you will be able to use it many thousands of times--many more than you'd expect to fire it in a zombie outbreak--without incident.  Still, that's just my preference.  Try both types and decide which you like more.  Now, on to cartridges!
  There are two generally accepted ways to measure the size of a cartridge: caliber, which measures by hundredths of an inch, and metric measurement, which uses millimeters.  Between the two, metric is more informative.  Every metric round tells you its width and length, in that order, separated by an x.  For example, a 9x19mm cartridge has a diameter of 9 millimeters and a length of 19 millimeters.  This helps you figure out which cartridges you can fire and which ones you can't. Even then, though, you have to be careful: most cartridges have nonstandard "loads," with either more or less powder.  For example, an overpressure cartridge--a cartridge filled with extra propellant--can damage a gun not designed to fire it because of the additional pressure in the barrel (hence its name), while a standard cartridge may not fully push back the slide of a gun designed for overpressure loads.  Fortunately, most overpressure ammo is marked with a little "+P" sign somewhere on its base, and really high-pressure stuff is marked with a "+P+." That stuff can blow a normal barrel apart!  And that's why you should always know what your gun takes for ammunition.
  Finally (for now), reliability.  Read online reviews on the pistol you're planning on buying.  Go to gun shops and ask about its reliability.  Ask owners about how it feels, how often they shoot it, and how many times it's failed versus how many shots it's fired.  It doesn't take all that much effort, but it's the main difference between choosing a reliable piece and a comparative junker.  And reliability isn't the only thing you need to consider: think of the features you want, the recoil, the report, and how many are in circulation.  Colt 1911s, Beretta 92Fs and 92FSs, and Glocks, have all proven themselves to be reliable, durable, and accurate, and have many "relatives" that you can salvage for parts (especially the Glocks).  Take the time you need to research the pistols you've got in mind, because if you pick the wrong one, you won't get a retry.
  Calibers and cartridges:
There are a lot of different cartridges from which to choose.  All have their unique advantages, circumstantial perks that you can use with certain tactics.  However, I find that these six cartridges in particular are suited to the zombie apocalypse.  Maybe you'll like one.
  First, the .22 Long Rifle (abbreviated to .22 LR).  It's a small cartridge, but it's racked up as many brownie points as any other cartridge.   First, it's easily the single most common cartridge available.  Pretty much every gun store has tons of boxes in the ammo section.  Second, it's tiny; you can carry ridiculous amounts of .22 cal with ease.  You won't run out and you won't be loaded down by the ammo.  It's true that this cartridge doesn't have as much punch as larger calibers, but, as you've probably heard from numerous sources (I certainly have), it'll rebound in your enemy's skull, causing massive damage to his or her brain.  Even if it passes through the enemy's head without that brain-scrambling rebound, you'll still be shooting him in the head.  And although the .22 might not penetrate a skull at long range, we're talking about using this in a pistol, a close-range weapon.  The .22's lack punch won't be an issue at fifty feet, or even fifty yards.  Ultimately, despite its deficiencies, the .22 LR is an excellent cartridge.
  Next, the 9x19mm.  This is, I'll openly admit, my favorite cartridge.  First, while it does plenty of damage to the average infected head, it's small enough that you can cram around 16 or 17 rounds of it into a pistol without extending the magazine.  It's light, so you can keep plenty with you, and it'll protect you from both raiders and infected.  Finally, the 9x19mm cartridge has been around since before World War II, on both sides of the conflict.  It did its job then, and still does it now, maybe even better if you consider all the advancements we've made in gun technology.  Plus, it's metric.  Now, on to the next round!
  The .40 Smith and Wesson cartridge (abbreviated .40 S&W) is also a solid chambering.  it's a lot like the 9x19, but just a liiitle bit larger at about 10 millimeters wide.  This, in turn, means that it takes more flesh and bone with it as it passes through a zombie's body, creating a larger wound channel and destroying more flesh.  And while it travels more slowly than a 9x19, it still gets to--and through--a body very, very quickly.  Whatever your preference, you can't say that the .40 S&W isn't a solid round.
  Next, we've got the .45 ACP.  This is quite possibly the most recognizable cartridge in the US.  It served in the US army for close to a hundred years and in several commendable weapons, including the ever-popular Colt M1911 pistol.  In fact, the main reason for was because the US wanted to be able to share ammunition with its allies during a war.  Every country had to be able to able to make the same ammunition, and since the rest of the world is metric, we had to pick a metric round.  Anyways, the .45 ACP is a powerful, popular, reliable cartridge.  You can fit around 13 rounds into a double-column magazine without extending the mag past the butt of your pistol, and while it is heavier than other rounds, the .45 is still small enough that you can easily carry a few hundred without too much trouble.  Overall, this is an excellent round to choose.

  Finally the .357 Magnum and the .38 special round out this list of cartridges.  While they sound like they've got dangerously different specs, the .38 and the .357 actually have exactly the same case diameter.  When S&W made the .38 spl, they measured the case instead of the base of the exposed bullet.  The case had a .379 inch diameter, rounded off to .38 inches (hey, "thirty-eight" is easier to say than "three-seventy-nine").  The .357 Magnum, on the other hand, was measured at the bullet's exposed base, giving it a different measurement.  The upswing of all this?  The similarities give a revolver chambered for the .357 Magnum the ability to fire the .38 special.  However, this doesn't work in reverse: thanks to the .357 magnum's longer case (and the extra powder inside),  it's fired at a much higher pressure than its parent cartridge, and a revolver built for the .38 special can be damaged by that extra pressure.
  You probably noticed that I was talking about using the .38 spl and .357 Mag in revolvers.  This is because a magazine-fed pistol is designed for a specific diameter and length of cartridge, whereas a revolver can almost always shoot shorter cartridges, so long as they are of the same diameter as the cartridge for which they were chambered.  If you want to fire either one at your option, get a revolver (or a second pistol, but that's more weight).  Both cartridges are common enough that you'd probably have enough ammo for them, but if you want a revolver, I'd suggest the "Caliber .357, Magnum load."

Useful skills and knowledge, part 7.

Carpentry:
Absolutely awesome.  Before steel and iron, wood will be your primary building material.  And with this, carpentry will become your best friend.  You'll be able to build defenses, traps, equipment, even carts and wagons.  Sounds good, doesn't it?
Metal is everywhere.  In traffic signs, buildings, appliances, tools, and millions of other things.  If you can get at it, you will need a way of working it.  Cutting and welding are easy enough skills to learn, and very useful for reinforcing structures and making weapons.  Sheets, bars and spikes of metal all become workable material.  Just think of all the things you can do!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Weapons, part 7.

Spear:
I like them.  Spears are reliable weapons, both easy to make and good for fighting.  You probably won't be able to hit an infected in the head with one, but a chest stab will stop a zombie dead(er).  If you make a spear with a crosspiece, you can stab repeatedly without worrying that the spear will become stuck too deeply in your adversary.  With time, skill, and a straight bit of wood, you can make a balanced javelin to throw at pursuers and save your arrows and other, less common projectiles.  You can make lethal barricades with spears, add them to pits and swinging traps, or even just jab at your enemies during a siege of your base (all of which, incidentally, is belong to us).

  Alright!  I think I finished everything worth covering except for firearms, explosives, chemicals, poisons, fire itself... you know, I'm absolutely nowhere near done.
  ...It's probably best not to think on that too much.  One post at a time: that's how I should think of it.  One post at a time with the best ideas I can think of.  But I am glad to have finished most of the things that don't go boomsizzle or crackle when you use them.  It makes what's coming next sound even more fun than it is!

Finally, I'll be covering pistols, carbines, rifles, and shotguns in the next two posts.  They will be biased, but then, what hasn't been, so far?  Toodles!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Shameless pedantry.


PEDANTRY BEGINS.
In gun terms, a magazine is not a clip.  A magazine is the container for the cartridges, shells, or other projectiles and is loaded into the firearm prior to usage.  A clip is a piece of metal that is used to hold cartridges in place to either load them directly into a firearm or into a magazine; it may of may not be inserted directly into the firearm, as is the case for an M1 Garand, but if pops out once the cartridges have been loaded.  Magazines are vital to the operation of a firearm, whereas clips are helpful but not vital.
PEDANTRY ENDS.
That said, I'm still going to use "clip" as a term for a gun's magazine.  Screw the grammar, I have artistic license!

Useful skills and knowledge, part 6.

Parkour:
Great for urban areas.  You won't want to be in a city during the apocalypse, but if you have to gather supplies or find people in the concrete jungle, free running and a crowbar will get you almost anywhere.  It doesn't take much practice, and you'll get athletic training as a bonus.  Overall, this skill is very useful--although I wouldn't say it's vital.

Medical training:
I've already indirectly covered this in the "basic survival skills" skill group, but medical training is important enough to mention twice.  Sometime during any disaster, you will get hurt.  Maybe not much--scrapes, bruises, even just sunburn--but for any serious injuries, you'll have to know how to treat and move people without hurting them.  This ranks in my top 10 skills to learn for any disaster--natural or otherwise.

Weapons, part 6.

And finally we reach the ranged weapons.

Bows:
Excellent weapons, so long as you know how to use them.  A trained archer can easily put down several infected with a bow before they notice where the arrows are coming from.  You can make your own ammunition, which is a massive plus when you may have to face thousands of zombies over the course of a zombocalypse.  However, you need to be strong, well-fed, and trained to use a bow with enough poundage to inflict serious damage.  The highest draw weight the average newbie could manage would probably be about 20 pounds, maybe 30, assuming they didn't need any kind of accuracy (not that they'd have any, being new at archery anyways).  After a month or so of training, you'll probably be able to consistently hit a 6" target at 25 or 30 feet.  This isn't very good for a silent weapon, but it gets better.  Also, if you use a compound bow, everything gets easier.  They give you more power for the same effort, have a bunch of accuracy-improving attachments, and can be used for most of the things that a normal bow can be used to do.  However, Their strings can be a pain to replace, and they fire a bit more slowly than normal bows, generally speaking, so choose carefully when choosing between the two types of bow (recurve bows count as "normal" bows in this).

Crossbows:
Bows with a few trade-offs.  They don't shoot nearly as quickly, but you fire them in almost exactly the same way as a gun, making familiarity nearly instantaneous.  Also, loading, drawing, and aiming are all easier with a crossbow than with a bow, and you get an even longer accurate range to boot.  Essentially, a crossbow is a silent, arrow-firing gun.  And you can still make your own ammunition!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Useful skills and knowledge, part 5.

Cardiovascular training:
Cardio is useful for walking, running, jumping, lifting, carrying, swimming, biking... a lot of stuff.  You'll probably do all of the things on that list before the end of the apocalypse--heck, before the end of the first quarter.  End results: with cardiovascular training, your chances of survival rocket upwards.  Without that training, your chances are depressing.  And as a side note, this is better than eleventh or twelfth on this list.

(I'll post a second skill here tomorrow.)

Monday, October 24, 2011

Useful skills and knowledge, part 4.


Leadership: worth learning.  Any group, no matter its purpose, is held together by two things: a common cause, and a good leader.  Without either, the group is severely hampered and will often dissolve.  This is especially true for small groups.  To survive in any sustained disaster, every member of the group has to act in union with the others, backing each other up and working for their goal.  For this kind of cohesion, the group needs a figure they respect and trust, someone whose word they will follow.  They need a leader.  You.

Teaching skills: never useless.  Teaching the other members to do your job ensures that they can cover for you if you are injured, and makes your group feel that they are doing something beyond survival.  That sense of progress, of achievement in a seemingly hopeless situation, will keep the group going.  Even if you have no destination, no goal beyond survival, you can keep morale high and your team hopeful by teaching and learning.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Useful skills and knowledge, part 3.

Worl... let's begin.

Concentrated weapons training: You can sometimes manage with a general knowledge about weapons, but if you want the best chance of survival you can get, you will need to specialize.  Be it camping sniping, hand-to-hand combat, or even rock throwing, if you're really good at it, you will be able to design tactics around your strengths.  This also improves your value to a group, should you create or join one.  Someone who can do one thing perfectly is infinitely more valued than someone who can do everything fairly well.  But going back to tactics...

Tactics: This isn't hard.  Tactics against zombies are (almost) as easy as knowing where to stand.  Find higher ground for melee combat, a camouflaged perch for sniping, and so on.  When barricading a fort, leave one or two hidden emergency exits.  Booby trap and alarm the area around your base.  Use loud noises and flashes to distract pursuers and searchers.  Keep a backup weapon.  Walk at night, when vision is heavily impaired.  Sweep for hostiles several times before you relax.  Most of this is common sense, but you still need to learn it, and well.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Useful skills and knowledge, part 2.

I should clarify my previous post: on every posting day, I'll add a few more skills, bits of knowledge, or what have you.  Why not every day?  Because I'm a lazy bastard.  Moving on!

Environmental awareness: I don't mean recycling; notice your surroundings.  That glint in the window?  You see it.  That rustling in the tree over there?  You hear it.  That nasty stench off to your left?  You smell it.  And you pay attention to each separate thing, no matter how unimportant it seems.  You can't afford to be blind, in any sense, to your surroundings, because missing just one thing, one detail, can kill you.  Pay attention.

General survival knowledge: knowing several low-tech ways of making a fire, what materials are best worn in which environments, what common plants are edible, and so on.  If you've already learned basic survival skills and knowledge, go over it again.  Meticulously.  You need to be able to remember these skills without even thinking about them.  It has to be reflexive, like playing the piano or driving a car, so you can concentrate on other things like whether that rustle in the bushes was just the wind... or something else.

General physical condition: stay fit.  Honestly, the general benefits should justify this without an explanation, but if you need encouragement, think of this: between a fit, healthy man and his overweight cousin, who has the better chance of escaping a zombie horde?  If you really need justification beyond that, I rate your chances of survival at less than three.  Out of nine thousand.

Combat skills: you knew this was coming!  Honestly, it's difficult to decide where this should go, but your life is almost certain to depend on this eventually.  Start with martial arts.  When you learn a basic technique, practice it until you can do it perfectly and reflexively.  If you can spar with classmates, do so.  Every edge you can get is one you should take.  Once you have a heavy grounding in martial arts, learn to use all manner of weaponry, from staves to wrenches.  The more weapons you can use, the better.  It gives you more options, and more options equal a better chance of making it out alive and uninfected.  And you want that, yes?

Monday, October 17, 2011

Useful skills and knowledge, part 1.

The first thing you'll need to make it in any emergency is common sense.  Common sense is a mixture of logic and life experience and lets you make smart choices and gives you insight to how things work.  Without this, you're zombait.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Weapons, part 5.


Trench knives:  Light and accurate, made to stab through the toughest of wartime and into the skull, the trench knife is a deadly weapon against a zombie.  Some were improvised by soldiers from bayonets, some simply bayonets, but the best were purpose-made tools of war.  You would be very well off if you could have one of these made by a sword smith, with a knuckle duster grip and a thin, durable spike.  But I'm getting off track.  A trench knife is a very useful weapon, but you have to get in close with it to strike.  For this reason, it would be best as a reserve weapon, a backup, like a pistol.  You don't want to resort to it, but if you do, there's no stopping you.  Overall impression: beautiful and powerful.

Normal knives:  Whether you want one or not depends on the knife.  If it's a dagger, made for thrusting, you can use it to stab deep into vitals and kill your enemy quickly.  If you have a slashing knife, though, you'll have a much more difficult time taking down anything.  Small cuts don't bother a zombie, and even long knives just don't have the range or leverage to chop off a head.  You should always carry one, mainly for use in daily tasks, but the knife, generally speaking, is not meant for fighting anymore.  Overall impression: very useful for survival, but not so much for fighting.

Swords:  Very effective once you've trained with them.  A well-placed stab can kill a zombie almost instantly, and a good slash can lop off a limb-- or a head.  I'd suggest getting a one-handed stabbing sword in favor of a slasher, since stabs give the best range, cause more damage to the vitals, and are quicker.  Plus, you can do them quite effectively with one hand, even with only the most basic self-training, leaving your other hand to do important jobs.  If you want to use a two-handed sword, though, it will cause massive injury regardless of your mode of attack.  It won't be good inside most buildings, but you can inflict massive cuts on zombies, slicing through several limbs and necks at once.  Remember, though, that it doesn't need to be a katana to be powerful: European swords cut extremely well, and are built to block if needed.  Overall impression: you won't get much domestic use out of them, but swords are excellent weapons when wielded properly.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Weapons, part 4.

And here's the next batch.

Saws:  Useful for construction, but not very good weapons.  Most saws are designed to slowly remove material, regardless of hardness.  They don't have a real edge.  And any saw that could actually kill a zombie is too inconvenient.  A buzz saw is stationary, has bad range, and splatters zombies everywhere, while a chainsaw is still heavy, dangerous to the user, and messy to use.  They're meant for making.  Overall impression: they cut trees a lot better than zombies.  Keep them in a tool box.

Rocks:  Decent in certain situations.  It's best to drop them onto zombies from a good ways up.  You can stockpile them easily enough in your fort, and there are so many of them that you don't have to worry about running out of ammunition.  You can launch the smaller pebbles from slings, too.  Still, if you're reduced to using these outside of a defensive position, you're probably already got a lot of problems.  Overall impression: best for static defense, but not very useful outside of that.

Crowbars:  Not too heavy, good for cracking skulls, and giving you plenty of leverage, a crowbar is a very handy companion.  It can strike with power, has good range, and even works as a walking stick in a pinch.  There are many kinds of crowbars, but the one you want will be obvious by its heft and feel.  As a bonus, the crowbar can open almost any door and dismantle any homemade barrier, giving you access to almost every house ever made.  It's the master key of the hardware store.  Overall impression: incredibly valuable.
Next up: trench knives, standard knives, and swords.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Weapons, part 3.

Finally, the really good stuff.  And on time, too.

Hatchets:  Awesome.  Hatchets have sharp, heavy blades, durable wood or steel handles, and good grips.  An overhead swing can cleave right through a skull and into a head, instantly killing any zombie stupid enough to charge you (and, well, they all are).  Axes, the big brothers of hatchets, have the bonus of leverage, adding cutting power unheard of in most other weapons.  You can cut down a tree or break down a door with one of these, and still have enough edge on the thing to cut down any zombie attracted by the noise.  This is an absolutely vicious weapon.  It's the thing your multi-tool wishes it could be, both deadly and utilitarian.  However, even the axe has its drawbacks: weight, though not a huge problem, is still an issue.  Axes are nothing if not weighty, a necessity for the axe to do its job.  And an exceptionally powerful cut will sometimes lodge the axe in its victim, which you will have to kick near the axe head to free your weapon.  Still, the axe and hatchet are excellent weapons and tools, among the first made and improved on in our known history.  They have proven their value billions of times over hundreds of generations.  Overall impression:  on a scale of one to ten, OVER 9000!!!

Hammers: good, but a little more limited than a hatchet.  What you can do with it depends on the type of hammer you pick, but most will have a hefty head and a solid grip.  The best hammers for zombies are long-handled and have a reasonably large head, but should be light enough to carry on your shoulder when not in use.  The hammer may not have a hatchet's edge, but it can still do plenty of damage.  Plus, you never have to sharpen it!  When you need to make a barricade, a hammer can drive in nails (or screws, with a bit more effort) to hold wooden planks in place and reinforce doors and windows.  As with the axe, weight is an issue, but exercise and practice will help you overcome that problem with both weapons.  Overall impression: very, very good.  Competes well with the axe.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Weapons, part 2.

Baseball bats:  You could do worse: they've got a good hit range and are light enough for long trips on foot.  Unfortunately, they aren't designed to crush: they're meant to hit balls as far as possible.  To achieve this, most modern-day baseball bats are made of pine or aluminum, both springy materials.  Metal rings (if you can get them) will make wooden models more lethal and durable, but you'll still need to hit most zombies several times to make sure they're dead (and if you haven't got a good arm, forget single-digit swing counts).  If you use this, you should probably get used to running away.

Screwdrivers: you only have one way to attack with a screwdriver, but it's a good one.  Stabbing under the jaw or through the heart will end most fights in moments, and their smooth shafts are easy to withdraw once you've made the stab.  As a bonus, screwdrivers are amazingly useful tools: you can use a bit set and an adjustable wrench to dismantle or build just about anything.  Overall, I give it a rating of "very, very useful."

Clubs:  You can find or make them very easily, reinforce them, and even make them nice and shiny, but it'll take a lot of muscle to use one well .  A club isn't a baseball bat: baseball bats are light and springy; clubs tend to be stiff and heavy.  You can do a lot of damage with a club, and some are well-made and  but it would probably be better to find a different weapon.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Weapons, part 1.

Alright, weapons or skills, weapons or skills...?  Skill with weapons?  No.  Today is a weapons day.  'T's get started.

Wrenches:  Large or small, adjustable or fixed, heavy or... not quite as heavy, wrenches are hefty, effective weapons.  A good whack from a wrench can do a lot of damage.  Lighter wrenches may not have the cracking power of larger models, but you can throw them from high up for fantastic results.  As a bonus, you can dismantle about nine pieces of technology out of ten with an adjustable wrench and a screwdriver with a bit set.  However, wrenches are heavy and unwieldy.  You could do as much damage with more accuracy and less effort using a hatchet.  Wrenches also tend not to have "grippy" handles.  Some tools are made for swinging, so they get nice, shock-resistant grips.  Wrenches are designed to give you leverage when you're turning a nut or screw, and since they don't need grips to do that, they're not made with them.  You can wrap electrical or sports tape around the handle for a rough surface, but it won't be as good at absorbing the shock of a blow.  Generally, it's usually better to have a wrench in reserve than as your main weapon.  Still, if it's what you've got, use it how you like.

Shovels:  A bit tricky to place.  You certainly want them for construction-- building houses, walls, trenches, booby traps, that sort of thing-- but they really aren't made for combat.  If a zombie were coming at you, it wouldn't just slow down for you.  Hitting a fast, head-sized target takes practice and timing, and the shovel makes that job even more difficult by being overly heavy, awkward to grip, and, depending on the shovel, prone to breakage.  And the first swing, if it does connect, will probably just delay the zombie for a few seconds as it gets up from your attack.  On top of that, a shovel has a ridiculous delay between swings.  Even if you use the edge of the shovel, you have a very low chance of getting a kill.  It's incredibly useful, and you certainly want to bring one with you if you can, but mainly for building defenses and fortifications.