~Firearms~

Firearms

A firearm is a weapon that fires either single or multiple projectiles, propelled at high velocity by the gases produced through rapid, confined burning of a propellant. Firearms are powerful, and indeed most are highly effective weapons against the living dead, even at range. However, firearms have their drawbacks. Users are required to carry ammunition and frequently maintain and clean their weapons. Firearms are also loud, require time to reload, and are inaccurate in the hands of an inexperienced user.

When choosing a firearm, it is always advised that one selects a weapon that fires a common ammunition type and has low to medium recoil. High-powered rounds will strain the shooter, and exotic ammunition may be difficult to find during a crisis.

Handguns

Handguns are weapons that are designed to be drawn, aimed and fired with one hand (although it is always preferable to grip the weapon with both hands to steady it). They are usually small and have little to moderate recoil due to their small size and relatively light weight, making them easy to carry, use and conceal.

• The majority of handguns are only suited to be fired at a range of up to 50 yards, and are fairly difficult to aim at longer ranges (30-50 yards), especially at a target as small as a zombie's head, and usually have simple sights and shorter barrels which are not suited to long range accuracy.

• While they often fire considerably smaller and less powerful loads than rifles, the recoil of a pistol is still more difficult to manage than that of a rifle (for an inexperienced shooter), as the weapon is held in the hand and can't be braced against the shoulder and has considerably less bulk than a rifle to mitigate the recoil.

• Handguns typically have a slightly smaller chance of penetrating a G's skull than a rifle due to the fact that most handguns have a muzzle velocity ranging from 900-1,500 ft/s (although some pistols have been known to fire close to 2,000 randomly). Caliber, target proximity, and angle and location of impact with the skull are all major variables. Although generally speaking one should not have a problem penetrating the skull at close range.

For these reasons, handguns are best suited to close quarters combat, but even in this situation a carbine is generally preferable. Despite its flaws, the handgun does have a great deal of value as a backup weapon, as it makes an excellent fall-back option if you run out of ammunition for, lose, or otherwise can't utilize your primary weapon for any reason (if you're knocked down and become pinned under a zombie, for instance). Pistols (and their ammunition) are also much more widely than long guns, being carried by police officers, security guards, and citizens alike. The two most common types of handguns are semi-automatic pistols and revolvers.

The handgun has a major advantage that other firearms don't have: they, and their ammunition, are extremely easily found. Handguns are standard issue for police officers, and are likewise kept by civilians for both home defense (easy to grab off the nightstand) and concealed carry, whereas shotguns and rifles (and their ammunition) are usually found locked away in police armories and personal gun safes. Semi-autos are generally more common than revolvers, but it mainly depends on the location.

Proper Usage:

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Semi Automatic Pistols:

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Revolvers:

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Machine Pistols:

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Caliber:

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Rifles

Rifles are long guns designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves ("rifling") cut into the barrel walls. The mainstays of armed combat and hunting, rifles are characterized by long-range accuracy and effectiveness, but other factors, such as rate of fire, vary widely depending on the type. Rifles are categorized by the type of loading mechanism (or action) they use. They are made to fill a variety of purposes and most are very modular. Most zombie experts agree that rifles are the best firearms in a zombie outbreak.

Note: Many modern rifles can switch between semi-automatic, burst fire or fully-automatic fire.


Bolt-Action Rifles:

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Lever Action Rifles:

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Pump-Action Rifles:

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Semi-Automatic Rifles:

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Bullpup Rifles:

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Automatic Rifles:

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Battle Rifles:

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Assault Rifles:

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Comparison to Pistols:

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List of common rifles

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Carbines

Carbines are rifles that borrow from an existing long rifles' design, only they are modified to be shorter and lighter. They were originally designed for mounted cavalry units, but later adapted for rear-echelon units and special forces units such as paratroopers. Thanks to their versatility in urban combat, they have been seeing increased usage among modern day front-line troops. They are available in many forms -- some, such as the Hi-Point 995 and the Beretta Cx4 Storm, are designed to fire pistol rounds, while others, such as the M4A1, the AKS-74U, and the M1 and M2 carbines, are basically shortened rifles.

Like rifles, they are easy to aim, making them good weapons for those unskilled with firearms. In particular, pistol-caliber carbines have extremely low recoil and make less noise than rifle-caliber weapons, and their use of pistol rounds allows for ammo interchangeability with a handgun. The smaller size and lighter weight of a carbine makes it easier to carry and manipulate in close quarters than a full-size rifle, although the shorter barrel also limits its accuracy and effective range, while the reduced weight increases its recoil (something for smaller shooters to keep in mind, especially when considering a rifle-caliber carbine).

It depends on the tactics each person is using, but a carbine may be a good choice because of its close-quarter combat effectiveness, others may prefer a melee weapon or handgun for close quarters and a regular rifle for long distance. Either way a carbine is a better choice than an SMG or machine gun or any other fully automatic weapon. A carbine is one of the better firearms to use against zombies. They do not use ammo as fast as assault rifles which is important as many of you know. Most carbines are smaller versions of full size rifles, such as the Ruger mini-14. Some more examples of carbines are: Beretta Rx4 storm, Ruger Mini-14 , Soviet SKS, Kel-Tec SU-16, Sig 550 commando, M1 Carbine, The Versatile M4 Platform, and Kel-Tec Sub 2000 among others.

Shotguns

A shotgun is a long arm roughly the size and weight of a rifle, but unlike the rifle (which shoots one projectile at a time), a shotgun fires variously-sized "shot" in a pattern that spreads the further it flies. Combat shotguns are meant for powerful blasts in closer range combat, or CQB. Another key difference from its cousin, the rifle, is that the shotgun's barrel typically isn't rifled; the inside of the barrel is smooth (also known as a smoothbore.) The shotgun can fire either a load of larger, ball bearing-sized pellets called buckshot, a load of smaller pellets called birdshot, or a solid hunk of lead called a slug. There are many different kinds of shotgun actions, but pump action is by far the most popular in the United States. However, there are also single-barreled break action, double-barreled break action (both over-under and side-by-side varieties), bolt-action, lever-action, and semi-automatic versions that one might encounter as well.

The most common shotgun gauges are 10, 12, 16, 20, 28, and 410. The smaller the gauge, the larger the diameter of the bore. 12 and 20 gauges are the most common - especially within the United States - and are both exceptionally powerful. It is also a good budget-minded choice. At some local stores, a 250-round case of 12 gauge ammunition can be purchased for around $70, and these cases are quite abundant. The same cannot be said for the other gauges, though lead bird shot is typically the least expensive.

Shotguns rarely have a large magazine capacity so reloading is frequent and usually slow. They are also very loud, strong recoil, making them challenging and intimidating for beginners to fire.

Break Action Shotguns:

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Lever-Action Shotguns:

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Pump-Action Shotguns:

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Semi-Automatic Shotgun:

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Automatic Shotguns:

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Effectiveness against Zombies:

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Machine Guns

The first self powered (not needing external power source like minigun) was invented in 1885. Heavier descendants, the first heavy machine guns, where first used in World War I, where they changed the face of warfare. Their purpose is mainly to provide suppresive fire, meaning letting bullets rain over the enemy, making him stuck behind his cover. Machine guns are divided into categories after caliber. Light and medium machine guns can be used by a single soldier, but heavy machine guns are always mounted, either stationary or on vehicles.

Light Machine Guns:

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Medium Machine Guns:

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Heavy Machine Guns:

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Pros and Cons:

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Miniguns

The minigun is a 6-barrel electrically driven machine gun. The electric drive rotates the weapon within its housing, with a rotating firing pin assembly and rotary chamber, fed by a linked ammo strip. Miniguns are characterized by their extremely high rate of fire. Hollywood has shown the massive destructive potential of this weapon in the hands of action-movie stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger: turning one man into a weapon of mass destruction capable of shredding houses like paper and clearing acres of rainforest at a rate to put even the most aggressive logging companies to shame. An example is the M134 minigun (7.62x52 NATO). Unfortunately, this weapon ranks about as low as the chainsaw in terms of practical use against zombies.

Problems:

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Black Powder Guns are firearms that employ early firearm technology, and hand loaded ammunition.

In the event of the collapse of civilization, ammunition production will drop dramatically, and there will come a point when even common ammo varieties start running out. Therefore, a lot of zombie survivalists may consider revertion to the black powder muskets and pistols used over two hundred years ago. The main advantage of black powder guns is that their ammunition is easy to for the common person manufacture compared to regular guns. It is far easier to make lead balls and gunpowder than it is to make an equivalent number of bullets. In addition, these weapons fire higher caliber rounds than their modern counterparts do, meaning despite the lack of a rifling barrel, they can still inflict severe damage. However, black powder guns have several critical disadvantages that make their use in any situation (even as a last resort) a highly questionable affair.
Black Powder weapons have a long, ardous reloading process. A very well-trained and disciplined infantryman could average 3-4 shots per minute, while a sub-par one or a militiaman could manage maybe 1-2. The average wielder will be lucky to get off one shot per minute. Second, gunpowder becomes useless when it gets wet. Modern cartridges have their powder sealed within the shell. Without such a seal, the weapon may become unusable on rainy days.

Making things worse is the fact that smooth-bore muskets are only accurate out to about 50–75 meters - akin to the effective range of an average handgun, and easily outclassed by every rifle ever made. (The exception is rifled muskets, which can hit targets from about 200–300 meters away - but are exceedingly rare). Yet another downfall for these is they are extremely loud. Most black powder weapons accumulate powder residue with every shot, and must be cleaned every few shots.

While any black powder firearm is quite uncommon, due to the popularity of black powder hunting, these weapons have been gradually making a resurgence over the past few years. Black powder revolvers are capable of holding up to nine shots, with some variants having a shotgun as an attachment; these are still rather slow to reload unless you have a spare cylinder.

Submachine Guns

A submachine gun (SMG) is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. Smaller than rifle carbines, but larger than machine pistols, submachine guns combine the close range firepower of a machine pistol with a more ergonomic long gun layout (which almost always includes a stock) and a somewhat longer barrel. They are easy to use and carry, and they usually hold large amounts of ammunition (about 30 rounds per magazine). Submachine guns are comparable to pistol-caliber carbines in power, range, and accuracy. Indeed, the two categories have a lot in common and overlap a fair bit in the same way that automatic rifles overlap with semi-automatic rifles. True submachine guns are select-fire and as such are usually not available to civilians. Semi-automatic variants of various submachine gun designs do exist and are typically classified as pistol-caliber carbines, but even these are illegal in some jurisdictions. As SWAT and special forces teams are overrun, however, it may become easier to obtain a fully automatic submachine gun.

The first true submachine guns saw combat in World War I, where they proved an asset in trench warfare. During the Prohibition era in the United States, the Thompson submachine gun grew infamous for its heavy use by gangsters and police officers, and was later used by U.S. soldiers in WWII. Submachine guns were used by all sides in WWII to provide soldiers (who were typically armed with bolt-action rifles) with superior close range firepower, and continued to see service afterwards, but were soon usurped as standard military weapons by automatic rifles. In recent years, submachine guns have mainly been used by law enforcement officers, counter-terrorism operatives and special forces soldiers, but they have begun to fall out of favour with these groups due to their poor effectiveness against modern body armor.

Sub-machine guns occupy the middle ground between pistols and rifles in terms of effectiveness. They're lighter and shorter than rifle carbines, making them easy to manuever in close quarters, and have somewhat softer recoil. On the other hand, they're less accurate at range than most rifles and have inferior stopping power. Despite this, sub-machine guns (and their semi-automatic equivalents) are far more practical than machine pistols (due to their more ergonomic layout) and they will suffice for a primary weapon if you should come across one, though a rifle is preferable. If you do choose to use a sub-machine gun, it is important to keep it on semi-auto mode, as fully automatic fire is only a waste of ammo against zombies. The temptation to go full auto may be an argument against the use of these weapons by some people. Well known submachine gun designs include the Thompson submachine gun, the IMI Uzi, the MP-40 and the H&K MP5.

Personal defense weapons (PDWs) are a relatively recent development in submachine gun designs. They are submachine guns that fire newly developed cartridges which are essentially scaled down rifle cartridges designed to have superior penetration to the pistol calibers traditionally used in submachine guns. The two most well known designs in this category are the FN P90 and the H&K MP7.