in the event of a Zompocalypse...

a reply to: olddognewtricks

at least one of those air rifles should be a pump as not to have to carry around co2 cartridges, and and will definitely come in handy if there are no co2 cartridges available, also sword, spear and knife and bow and arrow training should be a daily routine . also common sense should be stressed and basic survival skills must be taught now . and at no point should one willfully enter highly populated areas so maps should be gathered and stored before hand, i also suggest topography maps and water table maps, solar powered two way radios should be gather before hand communication is paramount.

a reply to: NowWhat

would you not just get a full tang knife?

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I live in a mountainous state. Defensible, elevated ground is plentiful. Let them be drawn to my noise.

a reply to: DOCHOLIDAZE1
Yep good idea, especially the maps. They will be more precious than gold when the Internet goes dark. Annotate them with where all the hazards are (dams, toxic waste dumps, nuclear installations) and where resources might be (hospitals, supply depots, ports). Definitely do some kind of training now in the way of survival skills. Can't cover them all so the best thing is to pick one or two and then specialize. That will among other things make you very valuable to other survivors.

Was raised hunting and taught bushcraft/living in the bush for extended periods of time from a very young age.
Well enough skilled and familiar with using bladed weapons, bows and other forms of snares/traps etc to obtain food and when required to kill game reasonably silently - guess that could apply to Zombies too should the need arise.


To be honest I'm probably in the realms of one of those hyper-paranoid Survivalist/Prepper types.

I do own numerous firearms in numerous calibres, many of which due to my specific firearms licencing are pretty...eerr...interesting to say the least.


When it comes to a quiet firearm for not attracting Zombies - well I have a number of well-suppressed long-range rifles ranging from .300 BA110 to .308 AICS to .338Lap. Sure, anything that calibre suppressed is still going to be overly audible...but certainly extends the effective range of putting one in a Z's head from a position of safety.

If things got closer, I also have a cutdown, customised and very well suppressed 10/22 TD...pistol-grip, Magpul M4 stock, Picatinny rails for attachment of various optics but normally runs a 518 EOtech, runs either a 15 or a 20 or a 30rd magazine.
That thing is damn near whisper quiet...certainly less audible that my young son's air-rifle even.

originally posted by: alien

If things got closer, I also have a cutdown, customised and very well suppressed 10/22 TD...pistol-grip, Magpul M4 stock, Picatinny rails for attachment of various optics but normally runs a 518 EOtech, runs either a 15 or a 20 or a 30rd magazine.
That thing is damn near whisper quiet...certainly less audible that my young son's air-rifle even.

Interesting. My only concern though is that sounds expensive. The air rifle is certainly not thesamething, but it gives you all the power you need to inflict significant brain trauma at a safe distance, while providing a dependable means to bag small game when all the grocery stores are empty, with ammo that is s fraction of the weight and volume of regular bullets, all for under $500.

a reply to: olddognewtricks

Oh definitely...and I agree wholeheartedly.

A well placed shot with some of the more modern and quite powerful air rifles can be exceptionally lethal.
My boys one easily drops small game.

Kinda also think - despite whatever I may have stockpiled and cached away - that eventually anything remotely ballistic will run out of ammunition...sooner or later it'll revert back a few centuries to getting up close and personal with something sharp, blunt and/or heavy...


Like also the mention of maps.
Particularly as I'd surmise you'd likely be moving around from safe-ish place to safe-ish place.
Saying *safe-ish* as ultimately I doubt ANY place will remain *safe* for long.
Again sooner or later wherever you are will become over-run either by Zombies or more likely the living who'd do anything to remain living. As highlighted many times in Zombie movies etc it'll be the living far more worthy of fear.


Most of the areas I'll likely move through I already know quite well...great thing about such a small country (NZ) is there isn't many places I haven't been through or tramped/hunted through over the almost 40yrs I've been hunting, living, visiting in.

I do have a number of detailed maps, topographical etc.
Plus a number of good personal GPS units with 'points of interest' already preloaded...assuming GPS connections will still operate for a while. One could go so far as to also set up supply caches here and there, marked within your GPS, just in case you need to restock or find yourself in a area away from your usual home-base.

One thing I'd also suggest is investing in a GPS with an ear-piece. Illuminated visual GPS screens tend to emit a fair bit of light and can put you at risk when moving in darkness...whereas an ear-piece can guide your movements with increased stealth and thus hopefully safety.
Swappable SD Cards with the maps and marker-points are also a good idea - so you can switch out the information to another GPS unit if one fails. Passwording the data (as a number of Units allow) rather than storing it within the internal memory is also advisable to increase security of where your caches are and where your movements have been...last thing you'd want is to lose the GPS and someone else to know your potential positions or supply locations.

There's a number of relatively cheap solar and to some extent kinetic chargers available - where possible get both.
The modern kinetic-chargers are still a bit pricey and don't generate a whole lot of charge...but can be enough to keep smaller devices like GPS charged while literally on the move.


Yup - you could definitely spend a ton of money on such things...and if possible, hey, why not...money ain't gonna mean a damn thing if such scenarios occur...

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I live in a mountainous state. Defensible, elevated ground is plentiful. Let them be drawn to my noise.

That makes me think....

any idea how bad it would stink in a zombie scenario out here in West Texas?

The worst smell I've encountered before was Raton, NM in the summer during a cattle round up. easily 200k head of cattle in a small spit of a town in northern N Mex, them and their filth baking and brining in the 110 degree heat.

You could smell it from 10 miles away. We drove through as fast as we could, given it was N Mexico.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
We drove through as fast as we could, given it was N Mexico.

You just had to take the honor away from me of pointing out that the smell had little to do with you driving through as quickly as possible, didn't you?

originally posted by: olddognewtricks

Definitely do some kind of training now in the way of survival skills. Can't cover them all so the best thing is to pick one or two and then specialize. That will among other things make you very valuable to other survivors.

Totally.
In such scenarios already having knowledge and skills will greatly increase your own survivability and that of those relying upon you. Sure you'll learn things over time - but that takes time and thus more time at greater risk.


I'm grateful to have been raised in the country (NZ) and culture (NZ Maori) I was/am.
Growing up in remote bush areas you learn from a young age to be as self-sufficient as possible, to hunt, trap, grow, gather.
Also as Maori my parents raised me with our own cultural knowledge/skills around tracking through bush, around the multitude of natural plant medicines, healing techniques, food sources, preparation etc.
So too being so remote you couldn't just take a something to a shop or garage to get it fixed easily - so you learnt how to fix most things, to build, weld, cultivate and irrigate, preserve and cure foods for longterm non-refrigerated storage etc etc

Added benefit of being raised within a strongly culturally-focused family and environment we were also raised well-trained and experienced in the usage of our traditional weaponry and fighting forms...usage of our Taiaha (fighting staff/spear), Mere (fighting edged club), Tewhatewha (Edged half-crescent long-staff much like an oriental 'Kama'), Puraha (a type of hand-operated/hand-held sharpened dart *launcher* of sorts)


And again thankfully - like most of us from my culture - we also spent time being trained by our country in weapons forms, H2H, knife techniques etc and many other valuable survival skills during our Basic Training...

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Well...first i got the town wrong. Raton is right on the border. The "town" is Clayton, NM. Not really a town. A couple of houses, a post office a few miles up the road.

Typically i would make a joke about the cheerleaders, and grazing amongst the cattle. But they don't even have a school. Its the kind of place that makes Decatur, TX look like NYC.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

If it's Carson up by the CO border, then it's mainly a community of Mormons. Beautiful country, with some real nice sized elk in the Carson National Forest north of the town.

The smelliest place in NM is the stretch between Las Cruces and Anthony. All dairy farms reeking like sour ass and feet for 30+ miles. Doesn't help much to know that your journey culminates in El Paso, Tx, either. Waco Tanks is the only redeeming feature.

Speaking of which, the tanks would make a fine defensible fortress in an invasion.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

in our town we have some bluffs (they call it an "escarpment") that overlook the town, and sit right above a relatively ancient water supply (the Apache and Comanche fought very bloody wars over "ownership") that is fed by the Edwards Aquifer.

The bluff is part of a chain of low rising mountains that run through the southern edge of town. About 5 miles from the "watering hole" is a dammed terminus of a couple of creeks that form some smallish creek lakes.

That bluff would be my ideal place. Lots of game in the rolling hills (deer are rampant, as are hogs, turkey, quail, etc, etc). The indians liked the spot for signaling to other mountain tops in the area, as well as the water readily available, and the perfect view of miles and miles of open plain to the north, northeast, and northwest.

Even better: the Wal Mart supercenter is right there, too. Like a big 1 stop shop for food, gear, and water.

a reply to: alien
That's pretty cool. I'm a suburbanite and should the zompocalypse come calling I admit I'll be scrambling to learn some of that stuff.

a reply to: olddognewtricks

Well you can always learn it now if you aren't already.

I'm amazed at how detailed many youtube clips are around various skills and such. Have a go at them, get familiar with them.

Being a suburbanite you also no doubt possess skills I don't. I don't do well in suburbia...just makes me get all jittery and feel so hemmed in.
Put me in the suburbs during any such scenario and I'll probably struggle just as much as the next guy if the locations were reversed...

a reply to: alien

I've seen some vids on YouTube like you describe. I can't tell what is good versus not so good. Got any suggestions you could share? My main interests are hunting, improvised shelter, and food preservation when you have no electricity.

Get good with home made bows an arrows. Eventually your air rifle will break and you will run out of bullets.

"But I know how to reload bullets!"

Great. How long can you do that for? Sure, you can melt and cast lead, reuse the brass...hell, if you HAD to, you could mix up your own black powder if need be.

Do you know how to make a primer though? Eh?

At best, people would be reduced back to cannons and black powder muskets. That's messy and time consuming, I'd rather be lighter on my feed and a good shot with a bow. Tried and true since the dawn of man.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Yup. I have a KaBar kukri...great for cutting small firewood, clearing brush, and whatever else.

In all reality, avoiding confrontation would be my top priority. I'll let the macho morons fight it out and scavenge the pieces once the dust settles. Foxes have it right...

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Alaska's entire population is less than 740,000 people. That is not that much ammo.

And yeah, you can make your own primers out of strike-anywhere match heads and the removed and cleaned used primer cups & anvils.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

It's getting harder and harder to find strike-anywhere matches...



Another problem I thought about is even if you were able to crush and mix up your own crude black powder, how safe would it actually be for reloading? I thought reloading was as much science as art, and you can easily hurt/kill yourself if its done wrong -- hence the accurate scales and carefully labeled types of powder used?