What is the best handgun to kill a zombie?
From Zombiepedia
Choosing a handgun for the Zombie Apocalypse
In choosing a handgun for use after the apocalypse, you must consider several factors.
1.) Weight of the firearm (and its ammunition.)
2.) Availability of the ammunition, both pre-infection and post.
3.) Cost of ammunition pre-infection.
4.) Weapon's ammunition capacity. (How many rounds it can hold. )
5.) Recoil and Accuracy
6.) Reliability and Maintenance
7.) Power
These should all be deciding factors in your choice of a firearm.
You should feel comfortable in your choice of firearm, be able to use it easily, and be able to perform a complete disassembly and cleaning of the weapon. The weapon you choose is your literal lifeline. The topics will be discussed clearly, and without picking sides of one handgun over another for the sake of brand supremacy. If it works, great. If it works for you, even better.
1.) Handgun Weight
There is a difference between taking your gun to the range and shooting it every so often and carrying it every day. Only by carrying it every day will you realize how heavy it really is. Cops and soldiers know exactly how heavy their weapons are for this reason. They are always carrying them. Thus, if you don't need to be carrying around a 4.5 pound handgun, don't. Your ammunition, likewise, should not be of a bulky nature. You should be able to carry several hundred rounds of ammunition with you at all times. Several hundred rounds of .22 ammunition weighs quite a bit less than several hundred rounds of .50 ammunition, as does many other types of handgun ammunition
2.) Availability of Ammunition
This is arguably the most important factor to consider in selecting a handgun for use. If you can't easily find the round you want in a gun store, chances are, you don't need it. If you can't find it pre-infection, the odds of you salvaging it post-infection are slim, at best. This comes into play even more so post-infection. Picking ammunition that is readily available to you in your area is a good idea. 9mm would be a good choice in this area, as it can be salvaged from nearly every police station or rent-a-cop in the country. A .357 Magnum revolver likewise would be a good choice, as it can chamber both .38 and .357.
3.) Pre-infection Ammunition cost.
If you are trying to stock up on ammunition and be prepared ahead of time, this is important to you. Stocking up on .50 ammunition is much more costly than stocking up on .45 or 9mm. Find a dealer that offers a discount for bulk purchases, and stock up.
4.) Ammunition Capacity
This can be a major deciding factor in your choice, as it is the amount of times you can fire before you can reload. Reloading a revolver can be made quicker with the use of speedloaders, but is still slower to load than a semi-automatic handgun. For these reasons, picking a 9mm can really help, as they usually have a capacity greater than that of larger caliber handguns. Being able to fire 15-17 times before a reload can save your life, quite literally. There are aftermarket magazines that can hold up to 30 or more rounds, if reloading quickly is not your strong point. Practice reloading with an empty magazine to improve your speed.
5.) Recoil and Accuracy Recoil comes into play more in larger caliber handguns, or magnum loads in revolvers. As the hammer hits the primer in the cartridge, the primer ignites and creates an explosion inside the barrel. This is a controlled explosion. The explosion propels the bullet down the barrel, and the rifling of the barrel causes the bullet to spin, increasing the accuracy of the bullet. The longer the barrel, the better the accuracy at larger distances. The more amount of gunpowder behind the bullet, the greater the recoil. When your handgun recoils, it will lift your barrel up and away from your target. This means you will have to regain your sight picture again, which can take precious seconds that you may not have. This is how recoil comes into play in your decision. A .45 will have more recoil than a 9mm, yet each are decent rounds, but if you have a smaller hand, that .45 will be harder to control than the 9mm. Pick something that is easy for you control and keep on target.
6.) Reliability and Maintenance
If your gun jams in a crucial moment, you can die. The odds are not in your favor, as far as this is concerned. You must be able to clean and service your weapon yourself, as finding someone to fix it for you post-infection is very unlikely. If you cannot properly maintain your weapon, you should not be carrying it. Every weapon needs proper maintenance in order to function efficiently; even machetes and blades need oil and sharpening. If you take care of your weapon, it will take care of you.
7.) Power
This is referring to the stopping power, or how hard your round hits the target. This is important post-infection, because you don't only have to worry about killing zombies, you have to consider raiders, looters and people who will think that they are the most important thing around, and will try to take everything for themselves. This is where stopping power comes into play. In a zombie, all you have to do is but a bullet through the skull. You don't need too much for that. A .22 will do that. An uninfected human, however, is not restricted to the same slow shambling movement that the zombies are. They are quick, sneaky, and if they want your supplies, they will do whatever they need to do to get it. Hollow-points come in handy more for humans than zombies. Range ammunition can punch through a skull well enough, but you are better off with hollow-points if your target is moving too fast to ensure a head shot. Aim for the gut or chest, and it will stop, maim or at least slow down almost any target.
Revolvers: While the revolver doesn’t match the capacity of a semi-automatic, it beats it in reliability. Revolvers don’t jam. When there is less mechanical things going on, there is less to go wrong. That being said, they can still misfire. This is not a revolver issue, this is a ammunition issue. Get better ammunition. A revolver will take more time to clean, but it will tend to be more accurate than a semi-automatic, because the barrel does not move, as they tend to do in a semi-automatic.
Semi-Automatics: These are the winner in capacity, reload speed and sustained fire rate. However, they can jam, (either stovepipe jam or magazine feed improperly causing a jam) and the magazine spring can become damaged from too much use, and disassembly can be more difficult for the novice shooter.
Revolver
--Nighshade586 15:29, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
