Rifles, part 2.

Rifle calibers are a lot like pistol calibers.  However, while pistol round casings are almost always cylindrical, rifle rounds are often tapered.  Not always, as you can see with the .22 Long Rifle (.22LR) round, but usually.

  Now that the warning is out of the way, you’re free to think about what you want to use.  The .22LR is an excellent choice, made for closer range than most rounds but extremely abundant.  The .270 Winchester, .308, and .223 Remington rounds are all good choices as well, and the .30-06 has sniper-level range and precision to make up for its weight.  All of these rounds are useful in their own way, and each is better than its fellows at something.  It’s all give and take, just like with different pistol rounds.  Test each round out and make your choice; it’s hard to go wrong with a rifle.

  Now, let's talk about feeding systems.  There are five in all, though you probably only have access to four of them, and they are as follows: bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action (yes, for a rifle), semiautomatic, and automatic.  Bolt-, lever-, and pump-action rifles are some of the sturdiest and most reliable firearms you can get.  If you operate any of their actions fully, they pretty much will cycle.  They also tend to be the most accurate, shooting accurately at distances approaching--and even exceeding--a mile.  You'll have an extremely hard time of finding a gun more accurate than a bolt-action hunting rifle.

  Semiautomatics are all-around rifles.  They snipe well enough, often as well as the revered bolt-action rifle, and can fire quickly when you need a lot of lead in a lot of bodies.  But since hunting semiautomatics often have small magazines, you'll probably find that this technique works better with carbines.  Still, hooray for options!

  Fully automatic rifles are the ones you'll have trouble getting.  The license to buy an automatic rifle is much more expensive than a normal rifle license, and also harder to get--although this is affected by where you live.  Automatic rifles are excellent weapons, useful for mowing down infected and making any would-be thief’s day very, very bad, but the kick of automatic fire is hefty and takes practice to control, and you probably won't have enough ammunition to justify using five or six bullets on one enemy.  Even if you do have a ton of ammo, it should only take you one or two shots to put a zombie down.  Why waste valuable ammunition on the kill?