Tuesday, December 25, 2007

To arm, or not to Arm? That IS the question?

It rears itself again! Kim wants to be armed! Kim had a hankerin' this afternoon to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace with 12 hot rounds slammin' into a cast iron fryin' pan hangin' off a dead tree! Gonna think about it some more in the days to come. Maybe it was a passin' (if recurring) phase. Maybe not. Gun bunnies - feel free to chime in, either with general observations or specifics. Ideally, I'd like the following:

1) Fun to shoot, maybe as often as every weekend at a pistol range.
2) Good stopping power. Man-sized target down after one hit anywhere in its torso.
3) Preferably suitable for all family members, in case they have to pry it from my still-warm, dead fingers after zombies pull my guts out, in order to continue the maelstrom of hot-lead death.

5 Comments:

Blogger Steve Hayes said...

Hot-dead death?

You must be joking!

Zombies are the living dead. Only sterling silver bullets will make them dead dead.

3:49 AM  
Blogger KPaffenroth said...

Steve - them's werewolves. Though my good friend William Carl has a werewolf apocalypse novel coming out next year, I don't think it's the most imminent threat.

ChrisI - you raise good points. So long as the blight of civilization persists and pesky things like money still matter, one has to consider the cost of this new hobby. Of course, after the zombocalypse, can you afford NOT to have the right firearm?

You also make me think of two more considerations:

Magazine capacity. In a full-on zombocalypse, living in a target-rich environment with multiple threats at all times, this is a huge issue. It kind of rules out revolvers, which is too bad, considering they're more economical in general.

Foraging. In a post-civilzation world, what kind of ammo is going to be the easiest to find lying around? I would think 9mm would be everywhere, and now with so many police and military switching over to .40, I'd think there'd be plenty of those, too.

9:42 AM  
Blogger Scott said...

> 2) Good stopping power. Man-sized target
> down after one hit anywhere in its torso.

Outside of the movies, the "one-shot stop" is mostly myth. For a good discussion, see:
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/2004/
oct2004/oct04leb.htm#page_15
Sadly, the study does not discuss stopping power against the living dead. But against the plain-ol' living, shot placement matters far more than caliber or ammo type. So the best handgun is the one you can fire the most accurately.

That said, I'm fond of .40 and .357 personally. But 9mm or .38 will do the trick in most cases, and may be easier on the rest of La Familia. If at all possible, buy at a store that will let you fire a few rounds before you buy to make sure it fits your hand, etc.

4:47 PM  
Blogger KPaffenroth said...

Good point on hand size and ease of handling, Scott. I keep reading posts on some handguns being cumbersome for those with smaller hands - which would certainly include me, and all of the rest of the family, at least for a couple more years, until Charlie finishes growing.

4:56 PM  
Blogger Beth said...

Would you like to consult with my husband regarding shotguns? He shoots "sporting clays"--like skeet, but more, um, sporting.

I don't know nothin' 'bout firearms myself.

11:10 PM  

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