Whats with the Hornady Zombie Themed Z-Max Ammo???

marketing ploy......

sold alot of boxes of 'em the last few weeks at the range where I work (novelty stocking stuffers)... now that we have calibers that we didn't have before X-Mas, I predict we'll still have 'em for Christmas 2012...

IMO: It's creative and humorous marketing that increased their sales.
I bought a couple boxes of Zombie Max, just because ^.
I buy regular Hornady XTP bullets for my handloads.

Its kind of a joke for those who are "preparing for the coming zombie apocalypse". IIRC the advertisements started coming out around Halloween, though there was no stock anywhere which makes me wonder if they really intended to make the ammo in the first place or were just putting out a few adverts to get publicity. They ended up making the ammo though.

Edit:

I get that part, but who are they trying to sell this stuff to??? Is there some sort of zombie killing subculture out there that's their target market?

Click to expand...

People who are "prepers" often use the "zombie apocalypse" as a catch all/worst case scenario because it encompasses the worst kind of societal collapse/bad guys attacking that is foreseeable. And saying "I'm preparing for the zombies" is much more humerus than saying "I'm preparing for Katrina"

Then there are those who watch The Walking Dead

It was covered here very recently.

Walking Dead could happen tomorrow!!!
That aside can't wait to pick some up!

IMO: It's creative and humorous marketing that increased their sales.

Click to expand...

This.

I bought a couple boxes of Zombie Max, just because ^.

Click to expand...

Same here.

It's perfectly good ammunition priced the same as it's conventionally boxed/colored counterpart.

next up wooden slugs for fans of True Blood.

It is funny and humorous, right up until the anti-gun people get hold of it and point out that since there's no such things as zombies, guy people must be planning to use it to shoot hungry unarmed people. Why the gun industry would hand the anti's such a great negative marketing tool in order to make gun owners look like crazy paranoids is beyond me. It may be a joke, but since people vote based on preceptions, I just don't see this ending well.

Did you know that the paintball industry specifically forbids red paintball paint? They get it, that portraying their products as something to be used to kill people isn't good for business.

Honestly, it's one of the least expensive SD rounds out there. $15-$16/box. I'm not opposed to the humor either.

It was explained to me that they rounds are the same as the critical defense just without the nickle cases and a bit cheaper. Oh and green polymer for the marketing.

They get it, that portraying their products as something to be used to kill people isn't good for business.

Click to expand...

Maybe if people quit bowing in homage to anti gun dolts we wouldn't have hillary holes, bans on silhouettes at ranges, and pro gun people condemning an ammo manufacturer for making "zombie" ammo. At some point people need to realize that guns are a constitutionally guaranteed right, not something you should apologize for and condemn others for being more abrasive about it.

I've also seen lots of zombie-themed targets lately. It's just a marketing fad.

You know, I've taken a few new shooters out to the range in the past couple years and of course I talk to them over and over about being responsible gun owners. And at some point, either they, their girlfriends, wives, or siblings mention zombies. Of course, it's always as a joke but the zombie thing does seem to come up.

At first I wanted to stay away from that kind of fantasy stuff but now I just embrace it because I figure "whatever gets you to the range and shooting a gun" is worth it. So over the holidays I took a few cousins to a private range for some plinking and for targets, I used milk jugs filled with water and green food coloring (Hornady taught me green is the color of zombies). I called them jugs of "zombie juice" and my cousins loved blasting them with an AK and SKS. They heard about the Z-max ammo but I couldn't find any in stock at the time of the shoot.

Bottom line is they had a ton of fun and want to do it again. And I want to see an anti-gunner on TV complain about Z-max ammo. Because then the country can see just how stupid they are and that their fear mongering is just that.

Just looked at a box tonight at academy. Showed my teenagers they loved them. Lol the ones I was looking at were 308. 168 grain. It said amax (if I remember correctly) for the bullet. I wonder how it would work on zombie Bambi? Or just a target bullet?

Marketing stupids.

Now, if I they would offer some vampire-themed ammo, I could get interested in that. Something like Blade vs. Twilight. Wesley Snipes could be the spokesman.

(no, not serious)

All in good fun. It's actually really good and affordable ammo.

hrrrmmm....i think your forgetting Underworld, i mean who WOULDNT want glowy blue bullets? or rounds made of liquid silver. I still want some Zmax ammo, but id buy Vampire and or Werewolf bullets also

Anyway, am I missing something here about shooting zombies that I should be aware of???

Click to expand...

Zombies have hit something of a critical mass in pop culture. From high-budget Hollywood movies, to no-budget z-grade flicks, to a tv show, to video games, to graphic novels, to actual novels, to shoehorning zombies into novels that didn't have them in the first place, zombies have been gnawing on the brains of the American zeitgeist for awhile now.


For those who are bent on preparedness, there's a general feeling that "if you're prepared to withstand the zombie apocalypse, you can probably withstand just about any kind of disaster."

What's interesting is that this concept has gone so mainstream, even the CDC has picked up on it.

Given the prevalence of zombies in pop culture, and their perception as an "acceptable target," it's no great surprise that targets sporting zombies have popped up, and from there, ammunition for shooting them.

Ultimately, the creation of this ammo is a marketing gimmick designed to cash in on the current popularity of zombies in the larger culture.

t is funny and humorous, right up until the anti-gun people get hold of it and point out that since there's no such things as zombies, guy people must be planning to use it to shoot hungry unarmed people. Why the gun industry would hand the anti's such a great negative marketing tool in order to make gun owners look like crazy paranoids is beyond me. It may be a joke, but since people vote based on preceptions, I just don't see this ending well.

Click to expand...

I find it amusing that for every one pro-gun person who's actually willing to go out and research what the anti-rights activists are up to, there are at least 50 pro-gun people who project their fears on them.

The anti-rights bigots are generally unaware of minor developments like this in the shooting culture, and even if they do become aware of something like this, it's highly unlikely that their actions would result in actual anti-gun legislation.

Justin said:

I find it amusing that for every one pro-gun person who's actually willing to go out and research what the anti-rights activists are up to, there are at least 50 pro-gun people who project their fears on them.

The anti-rights bigots are generally unaware of minor developments like this in the shooting culture, and even if they do become aware of something like this, it's highly unlikely that their actions would result in actual anti-gun legislation.

Click to expand...

I agree with you only up to a point. It's not the professional gun haters I worry about. My fear is that by making ourselves look either faddishly immature (best case) or just plain nutty (worst case) we lose credibility among the masses who weren't particularly anti before.

The professional gun haters need acolytes to be effective and I don't think we need to be helping them create followers.

I agree with you only up to a point. It's not the professional gun haters I worry about. My fear is that by making ourselves look either faddishly immature (best case) or just plain nutty (worst case) we lose credibility among the masses who weren't particularly anti before.

Click to expand...

That's one of the thing's I worry about as well or going as far as saying possibly giving the "professional" anti-gun haters the "ammunition" to use against us... I can see it now news at 10. "Another shooting spree and what did they use": "An ASSUALT RIFLE using ZOMBIE AMMO". Just what the anti-gun establishment needs to try and push that agenda. I can understand the-"It's all in good fun" part of it but sooner or later that "Fun" could come back as a "REAL LIFE NIGHTMARE".

I can understand the-"It's all in good fun" part of it but sooner or later that "Fun" could come back as a "REAL LIFE NIGHTMARE".

Click to expand...

It's a sad state of affairs when you allow anti gunners to dictate what can and cannot be produced and marketed. This mentality was rampant in the late 80's and early 90's ("high capacity", "cop killer bullets"). We must not revisit it.

brnmuenchow said:

That's one of the thing's I worry about as well or going as far as saying possibly giving the "professional" anti-gun haters the "ammunition" to use against us... I can see it now news at 10. "Another shooting spree and what did they use": "An ASSUALT RIFLE using ZOMBIE AMMO". Just what the anti-gun establishment needs to try and push that agenda. I can understand the-"It's all in good fun" part of it but sooner or later that "Fun" could come back as a "REAL LIFE NIGHTMARE".

Click to expand...

Thats why every time a shooter is wearing anything with a camo pattern, the news doesn't say "a guy walked onto a college campus with a gun".... It says "A camo clad NRA member with an automatic assault weapon blasted his way onto a college campus killing/wounding....." Anything remotely tied to the "gun culture" can and will eventually be used against us by the anti's be it Zombie ammo, Camo clothes, or Evil Black Rifle's.