[kannonfyre]

I posted a related thread in the non-firearms section of THR and as promised, here is the one involving arguably the best home defense tool - the shotgun.

In the movie, "night of the living dead" several defenders are holed up in an abandoned house surrounded by many dozen zombies. If i'm not wrong, the lead female character uses a shotgun/longarm on many of the living corpses.

My question is......what pump action/semi-auto shotgun (model/type?) and what ammo (00 buck, 000 buck?) would you suggest for the recoil sensitive shooter who's main aim is to inflict as much wound trauma as possible?

I doubt many readers would have experience shooting cadavers but your comments about what's best for blasting gaping holes thru rotten flesh would be much appreciated. :evil:

[Dave McCracken]

Thanks,after many queries about which shotgun is best for general use, finally an original variation.

The simple answer is the same shotgun you use for defending from the living.

Of course, ammo may require some changes. Maybe silver 00 for werewolves, and some shells packed with garlic cloves and tiny crosses fot those that Buffy the Vampire Slayer hasn't gotten to yet. Or perhaps little wooden fletchettes for the Undead. Go for heart shots.

But before you have to repell the Legions Of Darkness, buy an 870, lots of light loads, and prepare for Halloween all year long...

[Sir Galahad]

I think staurolites ("fairy crosses") would be a better load since they're stone and fairly heavy and come naturally in a cross shape. They're a bit expensive, though, if you have to buy them from a rock shop and even more expensive if you buy them from a New Age shop. Which reminds me, occasionally, one can find twinned quartz crystals in natural crosses, but unless you find them, be prepared to pay premium price and have to smack New Agers away from them with a copper wand tipped with a geode. :D

Garlic cloves from a shotgun are iffy, at best, because they're a lot lighter even than steel shot. Plus, you'll find it darn hard to make a good pot of chili if you go shootin' up all your prize garlic. :D

Now, silver is a good thing because it's almost as heavy as lead. But, again, we're getting into a cost-effectiveness issue. See also the "shooting dimes from shotguns" threads.:D

But if the dead were coming to life, a lot of them, like the Founding Fathers, will head right back to their graves and re-entomb themselves with concrete when they see what the politicians are doing to the country they built.

[kannonfyre]

......i'm not referring to vampires or werewolves. I'm simply talking about your run of the mill zombies or shambling semi-rotten corpses with a taste for brains.

The criteria here is also recoil sensitivity. Any 12 gauge loads out there that a 130lb woman can handle AND can also blast baseball sized holes through a bloated, decomposing corpse?

[mrming]

i think you missed on the vampires..

Just think of your 12 gauge as a repeating stake launcher. Stake with light slug in the base.. iron wood perhaps? Suppose you could make a wood buck-shot in a similiar manner...


Zombies: rapid fire isnt needful. They are slow, stupid, but dangerious in masses. 20 gauge w/ a moderate bird shot load should be enough to disable them at needful distances.. A nice heavy v-8 would probably be best for the recoil sensitive tho.

fyi, i think your talking about night of the living dead; I thought it was a shotgun too but at least once I believe they pictured rimfire ammo being loaded.

[kannonfyre]

What about low recoil "tactical" 00 12 gauge buckshot? Would a 5'7" 130lb person be able to handle that? How effective would that be for blasting through carcasses?

[HSMITH]

Sre she could handle them, but start her GRADUALLY. Start with Winchester AA Xtra-Lite target loads, and progress slowly up to standard dove and quail loads, they are close to the reduced recoil buckshot loads.

[seeker_two]

According to most of the world's mythology, silver works on ALL undead & evil creatures (vampires, werewolves, etc.)

Like the ad says, "How much is your safety worth?"...:cool:

[mrming]

Bah, I think standard lead that was chilled in holy water would be at least as effective.

Besides, if your town is over-run by zombies, can you really afford $10 a shell for silver shot ?

[Jim Watson]

Tactical buckshot is pretty much a trap load with the 7 1/2s replaced with buck. And those are certainly manageable for a woman of normal strength, with good technique and some practice. As HD says, start out with the Extra Light target loads or the even softer Low-Noise, Low-Recoil AAs, commonly known as Featherlites because of the feather on the box. Those are very popular with Cowboy shooters who shoot crooked old guns at close targets. And they might not re-kill a zombie, but they can certainly physically distribute one to the point of helplessness.

Pump shotguns are cheap, powerful home defense weapons, less restricted than handguns in many repressive jurisdictions. They are reliable IF your arms are long enough to get a full, firm pump stroke. Is 5' 7" enough? I don't know, you will just have to try. Maybe a youth model with short buttstock will help you reach the foreend to pump it. Some SWAT teams went to auto shotguns because they found that a pump was more likely to malfunction from being short-shucked than an auto was to jam. Of course they could keep their shotguns clean and cased til they were needed, unlike the patrolmens' guns in open car racks. I know my old 1100 slug gun is reliable with name brand target loads, field loads, and tactical buck & slugs. Traditional heavy load buck or slugs will overdrive the action and give trouble. Then there was the time I tried some Russian shells... Ugh.

[Sir Galahad]

Where's Redneck? I think he could give us some tactical instruction for a situation like this.:D

[Logistar]

I know we are talking about shotguns here, but hey, how about a little TRACER ammo? Don't zombies generally move away from fire?

[DJJ]

But if the dead were coming to life, a lot of them, like the Founding Fathers, will head right back to their graves and re-entomb themselves with concrete when they see what the politicians are doing to the country they built.

And on that subject...

[Triad]

The longarm the redhead used was a levergun with a brass reciever. I think it was a .22 but I'm not sure.
I think any load from a shotgun would do for a zombie. If you're willing to let them get real close you could use blanks, since the muzzle blast alone packs quite a punch at close range.
DJJ, that's sad, true, but sad.

[ruger357]

Slug in the skull.:D

[Correia]

Shotguns are a primo choice for many types of monsters, it is the best way to deliver a silver payload, and as we all know silver works well on both lycanthropes and the undead. However Chupa Cabras are not affected by silver so it is best if you keep some regular buckshot on hand. (exoskeletons are easy to penetrate). Shotguns suck against giant radioactive animals (not enough penetration) but that isn't much of a problem in North America, and the Japense monster hunters have cornered the market on them anyway.

:p

[jYm]

ill take this with a few hundred rounds of 00....
and of course my Black 870 with the 000 Silver-shot for Teen Wolf...

http://www.lakesideguns.com/c3gallery/sweepers.jpg

[meathammer]

I believe Logistar has got it. Almost all "monsters" can be defeated with FIRE. Will a standard 12 gauge shotgun work with 12 gauge flares? I think I also saw 12 gauge incendiary rounds in a tactical/mall ninja catalog. If not silver, definately some fire! :D

[MrAcheson]

Yes because I want burning undead surrounding my house...

[jYm]

oh and Rambo 2's Exploding Arrows...

http://www.jeje.nu/rambo/rambo2/rambo.jpg

[voilsb]

DJJ, that's a hilarious picture!

[Andrew Wyatt]

anyone who has played DOOM or DOOM2 knows that a 12 gauge pump shotgun with a polychoke and wood furniture. shooting 0000 four pellet buck is the ideal zombie killing weapon, unless you've already picked up the double barrel shotgun that only fires both barrels at once, and somehow fires 27 pellets each time.

[redneck]

Zombies is just government agents on the ramage. They sense yer brain waves, an come a runnin to chow down. Then you join their legion an have to help kill off all the folks that still think fer themselves, it happens every day in america an all you folks thought it was just in the movies.

The real key to survival here isn't fightin em off its preventin em from gettin yer scent, errr brainwaves...yeah.
Personally I wear a coal bucket on my head to keep my brain waves from bein transmitted. Some folks prefer tin foil, but my coal bucket has a built in chin strap an makes fer a mighty mean headbutt if ya get me cornered.
Dependin on yer surroundins you can also paint your coal bucket to keep it from showin up. Mine's done up in mossey oak, but you city folks might want to go with tactical black.

Now, the less dedicated has been known to take thier bucket off fer things like showerin an such. I personally just don't shower... but anyhow if fer some reason ya get caught without yer bucket on, maybe the old lady's demandin a kiss or somethin....and the goverment goon squad aka "zombies" show up... ya just gotta start spoutin off thier own mindless ravins "guns are bad!" "lets raise taxes enough to get homeless ladies implants, then they can git jobs as strippers an pay taxes too!" that'll set em off gaurd an have em thinkin that yer already one of em. It might help to pretend your tryin to unscrew the top of yer old lady's head too...trust me she'll forgive ya, an sleepin on the couch aint so bad...least not compared to bein a goverment goon

All the while as this role playin is goin on you should be movin to A) put yer dang bucket back on
an B) git your weapon. (I still say that pocket pistols is best, especially with a little creative interpretation of the relaodin manual, but since some of you insist, get your shotgun.) I personally keep a hawg leg the size of a tire iron down the front of my pants an a black widow in each pocket, (the big iron down the pants is just fer looks, I can't wait to get the new Smithy 500), so step B aint to much of a trip.
An finally C (and yet another reason to use a pocket pistol) start blastin an retreatin to safer ground. You should already have yer old lady by the top of the head, so you can drag her along. (try doin that AND shootin goons with a shotgun HA!)

NOW who wants to sign up fer my combat trainin? :neener:

[Sir Galahad]

LOL! If you add the word "tactical" to every sentence in your training class brochure, you can $150 extra to every day of training.

[kannonfyre]

Sorry, I've transferred this post to a new thread.

[dance varmint]

Ammo is moot when it comes to zombies. The mere sound of pumping a shotgun, that bone-chilling racking of the slide, will send the cadavers lumbering back to their crypts faster than you can say Gunshop Commando.