Survival Tip #20: Weapons Part IV

 

Projectile weapons.

 

Let’s start with bows, crossbows, slings, and other such ‘primitive’ weapons. I do not suggest carrying one of these as your primary weapon, unless you already happen to be good enough to shoot an aspirin hanging from a string at twenty yards. That being said, I do suggest bringing them along in your convoy if you have one. In the quest for food a bow is a far better choice to hunt with than a gun. A bow is silent, and if you miss you can retrieve your arrow.

 

Shotgun:

 

Even loaded with a slug a shotgun isn’t your best bet. If you have room in your convoy I wouldn’t rule them out as a personal protection weapon against other survivors. Higher gauge equals denser concentration of bbs.

 

Rifles:

 

Rate of fire is your first consideration. Automatic weapons are made to spray bullets, which doesn’t do you much good when you just want to put one bullet in the zombies brain pan, however an automatic weapon that has the ability to be set to three round burst isn’t an entirely terrible idea. A bolt action rifle is the most accurate you will find, however this means working the action between each shot. Therefore if you go with a bolt action rifle make sure you are capable of firing it while standing and working the bolt without removing the rifle from your shoulder. Semiautomatic should be your choice of weapon in the Primal Age, as this allows you to keep your eyes down range while single firing with each touch of the trigger. Over all this is your best choice due to the right balance between speed and accuracy.

 

Ammo capacity boils down to the more ammo you can load at one time the better.

 

Ammo availability means pick a weapon that you can find ammo for at any sporting goods store or hunters gun safe. Don’t pick some sort of high tech military rifle unless you have access to plenty of ammo for it.

 

The caliber of the rifle is the size of hole it will leave in the target. However that doesn’t mean to automatically go looking for the fifty caliber. A higher caliber bullet is bigger, therefore you can carry less of them. Something as weak as a .22 can do the job, however I suggest somewhere in the middle.

 

Durability of most guns is beyond that of anything you else you can buy. WWII guns still circulate and are fully functioning. Make sure you don’t get something cheap that will break easy, and that you have basic parts for the weapon.

 

How easily can you break your gun down and clean it or fix a minor problem?

 

How element friendly if your gun? The reason the AK47 is one of the most used guns in the world is you can submerge it in mud, and use it 30 seconds later.

 

I’m sure I missed some consideration when it comes to a rifle, so please add it in the comments.

 

Sidearms:

 

If you have a hip, you should carry a side arm. Take all the above considerations into account and the longer the barrel the greater the accuracy.

 

Machine guns:

 

Not useful against zombies. Very useful against hostile people. However the weight/weight of ammo for something like this could be far better used in your convoy on anything else.

 

Bottom line, you want to carry a sidearm and a rifle. If you can find two that use interchangeable ammo all the better.

 

There are all sorts of accessories out there that you can add to your weapon of choice, and I challenge some folk to list them in the comments with their pros and cons, however you must be able to fire your weapon open sights with no add ons. No matter what happens then you will still be effective with your weapon of choice.