The Best, Off-the-Shelf Zombie Rifle

I just finished reading 'World War Z' and was googling various things to do with zombies online and I saw the most shockingly ignorant discussions everywhere about what firearms would be best employed against a zombie horde.

Machine guns, shotguns and assault rifles. This is what everyone blabs on and on about and it's all ignorant BS.

A machine gun is primarily used for covering and suppressing fire. It scares the crap out of the enemy, pinning them down and preventing them from advancing into the hail of bullets. Except that zombies don't get scared. They'll walk right into it. This would be fine if they were human enemies who could be raked down with automatic fire sweeping across the line of their chests. But it takes a headshot to kill and stop a zombie. Chest shots do nothing. You need head shots and for that you have to use careful, steady, well-aimed fire. One measured shot at a time.

So the machine gun is out. What about shotguns? I suppose that I could think of worse weapons, but there sure are better ones. I know of no commercially available shotguns that use detachable magazines or that can be loaded with stripper clips. The range is pretty limited and the ammo is bulky. This is even assuming that you are using buckshot or other loads with larger pellets. Most of the ammo you'd be likely to scrounge as the conflict goes on is birdshot that will not penetrate a zombie's cranium beyond the distance of a few yards.

A rifle is the way to go. But what kind? Lots of people like to say the M-16 or the M-4 or the AK-47. Why? Because that's what they see in action movies. All of these rifles are capable of firing fully automatic, unlike you count the fake, neutered AKs that are rebuilt onto semi-auto receivers and sold in the US as AKs. We've already established that full auto gets you nowhere against zombies, except that you'll run out of ammo faster. Then there's the pesky fact that most civilians cannot legally possess weapons capable of automatic fire in the US or most other countries. Even if you are permitted to have one, the cost is still prohibitive. It's been many, many years since any automatic weapons have been manufactured in or imported into the US for anything other than military and law enforcement use.

What you want is a semi-automatic rifle that can accept either detachable magazines or stripper clips. It must have good open sights, be durable, easily maintained under harsh conditions and chambered for a cartridge that is widely available and easily scrounged. Here's a short list of good candidates.

Ruger Mini 14
SKS
AR-15/AR-10
M1 Garand

Among these choices, the SKS is certainly the least expensive way to arm yourself for the zombie apocalypse. You can still get them for as little as $150 at gun shows or wholesale. I've spent enough time with my SKS to confidently say that it will shoot minute-of-zombie-head out to 150 yards. I usually get 3 inch groups at 100 yards. That won't win you any shooting contests but it will get you well inside of a zombie's head at that range. Beyond 150 yards, few people would be capable of making a head shot under battlefield conditions with open sights regardless of the rifle they were using.

For an all-around battle rifle that will be used at various ranges, you really don't want a scope on there. It will get knocked out of zero and be easily damaged. It's also much harder to shoot a scoped rifle while you are running or otherwise on the move. You're going to need good open sights. Preferably ones that are visible in low light, like the flip-up tritium night sights on the Yugoslavian SKS.

A neutered, semi-automatic AK would work just as well as an SKS. It fires the exact same cartridge with the same rate of fire and the same level of accuracy. With the added bonus of costing twice as much as the SKS. If you already have an AK, great. But if you were out looking to buy weapons specifically for a zombie threat then you should save your money and but the SKS. You can even get detachable 30 round magazines for the SKS if you care to do some minor gunsmithing in order to be able to use them. But I think that one would be better off using 10 round stripper clips with the SKS for the sake of reduced weight and thus more actual ammunition being carried. All of those aftermarket folding stocks and other goodies for the AK are also available for the SKS. Really, the AK variants available in the US have absolutely no advantage over the SKS.

The ARs are great rifles but they are expensive. Generally chambered for .223, both the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini 14 allow you to carry a lot of ammo with relatively little weight as opposed to the weight and volume demands of the M1 Garand and it's 30-'06 cartridge, which is the largest cartridge ever designated for a primary battle rifle by any military in the world, ever. I dearly love the 30-'06, but M1s have gotten pretty expensive due to collector demand and between that cost and the fact that I couldn't carry as much ammo as with the 7.62x39 or the .223, I'd have to pass it up.

Again, like the neutered AK, if you already have an M1 Garand then use it. You've already sunk in the $800-$1,500 that an M1 will set you back these days. 30-'06 is still the most popular deer cartridge in America and you will be able to buy or scrounge it everywhere. I just wouldn't recommend it to someone who was presently unarmed and trying to decide what to buy.

Between the .223 and the 7.62x39 cartridges, you've got to consider the fact that 7.62x39 is currently the least expensive centerfire ammunition available in America. Both will do the trick with head shots within 150 yards. Which of course are the only shots that really count with zombies. Meanwhile, .223 is on the expensive and scarce side presently due to the very high demand of the American military for this ammunition. If you were looking to stockpile non-corrosive ammo in the near future, 7.62x39 is the way to go.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that the SKS is the smartest weapon to purchase for all-purpose zombie killing. There are better tools for more specialized roles, but if you might have to go from urban warfare to making your way through the countryside for hundreds of miles to defending a fortified position, the SKS is the best way to do that on a typical budget of a few hundred dollars. Sure, it would be a good idea to have a handgun as a backup and a heavy, edged weapon for those moments when you are out of ammo. But one of the semiautomatic rifles that I have described here should be the most basic weapon that every serious zombie killer will use.