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Originally posted by OpTiMuS_PrImE
samurai sword - slice n dice
Originally posted by Swordbeast
My primary choice would be my Cold Steel Kukri.
Razor sharp, sturdy enough to be used for everything an axe or crowbar can do and small enough to compliment your bug out bag or combat gear without being cumbersome.
I've seldom seen such a versatile tool.
Originally posted by Aberinkula
All of your weapons are useless against my newspaper.
www.boingboing.net...
Guns aren't very helpful when they run out of ammo, and they aren't useful for many other tasks besides killing.
Originally posted by Aliensun
My first visit to this forum/thread. I was shocked to read the first few comments. Crowbars, knives, spears, hatchets? You've got to be kidding.
On second thought, maybe not. Many of you younger people don't or can't have guns and know little about them. Too much playing video games with swords and not enough old-fashioned outdoor hunting and plinking?
Of course, if you can't have a gun--I didn't say it had to be legal--yes, you will need to grab whatever it is you have chosen to use. And that is an excellent plan--know instantly what to lay your hands on. And as a couple of people said, have more than one hand weapon around the house.
All that said, however, given the situation where your home will be attacked by one or more individuals--and you can bet your ass there will be a gang of them--you will need multiple knives (old iron butcher-type knives found at garage sales--avoid the thin, bendy stainless steel type) would be your best and CHEAPEST bet. BTW knives tend to get stuck in bodies, that is why you need more than one handy. Sharper is not always better. Military bayonets, for example, are not very sharp for a reason, they get hungup on bone structures. The same would go for a saw-tooth blade top on a knife. Don't expect jab more than once with one without using your foot against the body to extract it. With bayonets, the army said to fire your rifle to free the bayonet.
In the final analysis, the non-firearm hand weapon person is destined to be in the second echelon to fall to invaders. The first line of would be those totally defenseless. The second will be the non-firearm person with any assortment of hand weapons--crowbars are too heavy to slow to bring into play and far to slow in recovery from a missed swing.
The next to the last of defenders will be the undergunned, underequippted gun owner. This last person will have something like a six-shooter, a .22 rifle or a bolt-action deer rifle.
The best homeowner's gun is a short shotgun with something like double 00 buckshot. Very legal most places and ammo readily available. The most well-armed home defender will have a multi-shot auto pistol of a large caliber, a pistol-gripped, short barreled shot gun and an semi-auto rifle of a large calibre. Those things can cost a lot of money. But right now, guns are a bargin because they won't be any cheaper before the revolution comes and worth even more later. The shotgun would be the best and cheapest first choice.
A while back I wrote , spontaneously, without the intention, a short story about a guy and his wife holed up with good survivial supplies in their surburbian house when all of our typical systems failed. To my horror, I realized that to do what you would have to do to stay alive beyond those that wanted or needed what you had amassed would perhaps not be worth it. Imagine, for example, eating your beans in a dark, boarded up little house with dozens of dead neighbors and would be robbers decaying around outside. With no aid coming from anywhere and left entirely on our own, most of us would finally give up. Those that chose to continue would become the worst beasts in the jungle fighting amongst themselves to the end.
Finally, there would be little different between the first person the barricaded couple killed or the last person left standing. He would be eating dog meat before long and wondering whether all he had done was worth it.
But, hey, these are just my ramblings on a rainy day. I could be totally wrong.
Originally posted by praxis
Originally posted by Swordbeast
Damn son -- did you realize you linked to a $650 knife? I have another model of the Cold Steel kukri that cost about $20. It's lightweight but decent for clearing brush.
The best reasonable-price kukri I found is the Kabar model. It's attached to my alice pack. Very heavy duty:
www.amazon.com...
Originally posted by angus1745
As my good wife pointed out, the ultimate badass melee weapon has to be a Flame thrower. You might have the sharpest machete but its not much use to you if you are just a charred skeleton.
www.youtube.com...