One of my favourite post-apocalyptic/zombie firearm 'wish list' weapons is the .45/410 Taurus Judge. It's that last-gasp gotta stop that zombie first time hand cannon that you want on you when things go all 'Walking Dead' on your ass...

Now what attracts me to this is that it fires a nice spread of .410 shot, meaning in a critical situation making that head shot is a nigh on certainty when you may only have time to get one shot off!

But the ammo manufacturers Hornady have now evolved a terrifically powerful compromise between the multi-shot capability of a shotgun pistol and the sheer power of a magnum round, it's called the Critical Defense® 410 Triple Defense™ load. Watch the video for an explanation...

This basically turns your Taurus Judge or S&W Governor into a three-piece grapeshot cannon. Any one of these three rounds would be enough to burst an undead mellon I reckon, but it has enough spread to compensate for any instinctive shot you put out in the general direction of a biter's bonce!

This load in a .410 pump would also have a nicely reassuring knock down/stay down effect, though for long-arms something that puts out a higher rate of fire would probably be preferable against a hoard. Perhaps the ideal set-up for this load - for mid-range hoard destruction - might be a Saiga semi-auto shotgun in .410 and a lovely big 30 round drum magazine!

Oh momma! :)

Watching series 3 of the Walking Dead we are slowly reaching a scenario that was perhaps inevitable, even in gun rich US of A - the ammo is running out!

Now good ol' boy Daryl - pictured above - seems to have pre-empted the eventual ammo crisis by wisely arming himself with a crossbow right from the start. Oh yes, there were those who sneered at his choice of ranged weapon in the beginning - but who's laughing now?

Bows - whether crossbow of traditional bow - do have a lot going for them. The ammunition is re-useable and they are a weapon of silent killing. The down side is, of course, the relatively low rate of fire, the expertise required to handle one correctly and their relative unsuitability for use in enclosed areas. But is there any other options?

Above: The hi-tech Carbon Express Covert SLS - 185-pound draw weight slings arrows at 342.5 fps. It's ingenious design means it is very compact and relativelt fast to reload. Things have changed a lot since the days of William Tell!

Daryl uses a comparatively cheap (about £450) Horton Scout HD 125 compound crossbow which is actually a bit old school compared to the Carbo Express pictured above. It also only shoots about 250fps but I'm not an expert on killing the undead with X-bow bolts so exactly what will go through a skull I'm not sure!

Well, discounting a blow-pipe or slingshot (!) why not get back to basics with a spear? Actually, I don't think I have to spend too much time on why that would be a bad idea - although a short stabbing spear would make a good pole arm for defence. But that's getting into the area of personal defence, we are interested in ranged fire-power... 

Here's thought, black powder. The recipe for black powder is freely available on the Internet and can be produced from fairly easily found materials. So, if only the Walking Dead crew had some black powder firing weapons - like fintlocks - they would have a good fall-back for their soon to be useless center fie guns.

Now before you blow a fuse and start thinking of flintlocks as the sort of thing a pirate would use, in actual fact black powder shooting has come a long way (yes, people still like to shoot with black powder)...

Above: The 2012 Thompson Center .50cal 5152 Fire Storm muzzel loader. 

You are a little limited unless you revert to 'antique' black powder fire arms, and modern black powder pistols seem to be non-existent. But it wouldn't take long for a small survivalist group to set up a black powder production line. Bullet casting is likewise a fairly simple process - these processes are all easily loked up on a number of survivalist web sites and forums.

If you want something a little more rapid fire - like a revolver - you would have to consider 'cap and ball' weapons like the Colt Navy (modern replicas are available) but then you would have to manufacture primer caps, which isn't easy. This would also open up the option to create other breach loaders, which would improve your rate of fire. At this point your are looking at having to have a more industrialised society - which, for our Walking Dead crew - would mean having a settled location, with access to a basic machine shop and (more importantly) enough man-power to scavange the materials and know-how to reproduce these advanced technical achivements.

So as things stand I'd be learning how to create primitive bows if I were them - as good flintlocks won't just be laying around. Luckily, manufacturing bows in a fairly well understood process that doesn't require hi-tech tools.

But learning to accurately firing a bow is a different matter.

I have to admit that I have noticed the boom in marketing products as 'Zombie' this and that has boomed over thepast couple of years. Several serious firearms manufacturers in The States have brought out a undead themed gun in an attempt to cash in on the 'popularity' (if that's the right word) of anything to do with Zombies.

One thing I find interesting is the attitude of 'serious' firearm users to this rather frivalous (they would say) inclusion of such items into thier sport/hobby. I'm a big fan of the 'Guns & Ammo' magazine - and I don't even own a banjo - and have been amused by the reaction to some of thier readers at the inclusion of a special Zombie section on thier web site!

That said I don't see that preparing for a imagined Zombie plague is any more 'crazy' than some of the other reasons that American 'Survivalists' use to justify thier paranoia (my favourite being a 'UN invasion' LOL).

My only concern is how much this frivolity affects taking firearms seriously as lethal weapons (not toys). I am not a fan of the painting real firearms to look like toys (like the whole 'Hello Kitty' pink gun fad) - I like the idea of making shooting fun as a sport, but a healthy respect of firearms should always be an inherant part of gun ownership.

...So I was pleased to see that the only guns painted in garish colours in this video were the airsoft ones.

Link: 'Guns & Ammo' - Zombie Nation section

Was having a shufty over at the good ol' Guns & Ammo and read with interest their '8 Best Guns for the Zombie Apocalypse' article. Surprisingly, not one but two of the guns that made the list were Wild West vintage lever designs made famous by the legendary Winchester rifle!

The high-tech list, which includes the obligatory Glock and tricked out AR-15, also highlights reliable hand-cranked repeaters; the Henry Big Boy .357 Magnum and the Marlin 1894 CB .44.

There is a lot to be said for mechanical simplicity, especially during a post-apocalyptic melt down and I would agree with this choice.

Typically though, Americans being Americans, you can now buy these antique designs fully 'tacticalized', with AR stocks and rails! John Wayne will be turning in his grave!

Pop over to Guns & Ammo and see what else is on their list.

A bit tongue in cheek - naturally - but interesting what people think should be in such a kit!

I always meant to assemble (on paper!) what I would consider a feasible UK 'zombie kit'. Obviously the Yanks have the advantage as picking up firearms is to them what buying a packet of Skittles is to us Brits!

I'm not a really big fan of fan films (eh? LOL) - for me the whole cheesiness of them is epitomised by the dreadful 'Star Trek Phase 2' series (do yourself a favour and DON'T Google it)! Beside which, being done by fans no two fans are going to agree they are good anyway...But I digress...

Tell you what - just watch this...

I have to say, having just watched the first half of the second season of 'The Walking Dead' I think I would rather watch the L4D fan film!

Hornady - American ammunition giant - have just brought out this excellent advert for what they are calling thier Zombie Max ammo!

Now the witching season approaches we should turn our mind to defence from the Black Arts. No candles, bells and bibles for me - I prefer something a little more macho than Professor Snape would approve of!

I featured the lovely Taurus Judge and S&W Governor shotgun revolvers in an earlier posts, but leave it to those Ruskies to go one better (or worse, depending on your point of view). The OTs-62 is a 12 guage 5 shot revolver shotgun which has recently had a make-over to make it into a “Service Revolver Shotgun”.

Apparently this sawn-off shotgun was made for Russian Special forces and I can see a certain practicality for close combat situations, but I wouldn't like to try and fire this beast one handed!

Thanks to the excellent FireArm Blog for this heads up.