I have no use for knowing anything about general history for it will not help me in my life, making it useless for me.
You voluntarily handicap yourself with such an attitude. Not knowing history is like walking down the street wearing blinders. You can only see what's directly in front of you and you have no other basis for understanding the world around you.
If nothing else, history enriches your life in the same way music and art do. It helps you to understand why things are they way they are and it gives you context for appreciating current events. Don't deny yourself the pleasure of understanding just because you've made an arbitrary decision about what will be useful to you. You're too young to have a perfect knowledge of what you need and don't need to know. For that matter, everyone on this board is too young to limit themselves in such a way, myself included.
Finally, it's been my experience that, if you begin to learn even a little about something you think you might not care to know about, you will find it rewarding and interesting in and of itself just to know something new. The interest will snowball if you have even a little bit of innate curiosity.
You voluntarily handicap yourself with such an attitude. Not knowing history is like walking down the street wearing blinders. You can only see what's directly in front of you and you have no other basis for understanding the world around you.
If I'll need history I'll run into a wall and realize it. I'm young, Dutch and am more interested in the future.
About the grenades, might come in handy if you need to quickly block an entrance behind you. You wouldn't be able to escape that way again but then you would only have enemies coming from one less direction. What's everyone's thought on melee weapons? Improvised or otherwise. How about spears? they may be hard to lug around but you have your enemy at arms length and full of holes.
If I'll need history I'll run into a wall and realize it. I'm young, Dutch and am more interested in the future.
One more try: Without an understanding of history, much of the future is going to lack a contextual foundation and will simply not make sense to you. Maybe being Dutch will help, but I doubt it.
I can't imagine why anyone would choose to remain ignorant, but if you want to go through life with a self-imposed handicap, then I can't stop you. Good luck with all that.
What's everyone's thought on melee weapons? Improvised or otherwise. How about spears? they may be hard to lug around but you have your enemy at arms length and full of holes.
Spears would be no good against a conventional zombie. To destroy the brain, you would need to go through the eyes, the roof of the mouth, or from behind. If you're strong and lucky enough to face many calcium deficient zombies, you may be able to punch through the bones of the face, but most of the time it would be ineffective. A more effective approach would to use the haft of the spear to crush the zombie. Also, once you stick a zombie with the spear, he can probably grab it and use it against you. A halberd-type weapon would probably work well against a zombie though.
What's everyone's thought on melee weapons? Improvised or otherwise. How about spears? they may be hard to lug around but you have your enemy at arms length and full of holes.
Spear, not so well. Unless you have a great throwing arm, in which case a spear is very nice to impale one zombie. As for a long reach melee weapon. A steel bo-staff? A long pole with a heavy, blunt, also works great
Anti-Zombie gear? I'l stick to what I actually own. As in, my ACTUAL anti-zombie gear.
1. Mossberg 500 pump action, 19 inch barrel plus kutts compensator, open choke 2. 2-3/4 inch winchester #8 shot, 7/8 ounce load, 1450 fps (outdoor use) 3. 2-3/4 inch remmington #8 shot, 1-1/8 ounce load, 1200 fps (indoor use) 4. Ruger 10/22 lr with 22 inch varmint barrel, 1400 fps rounds, competition trigger job, open sights, and I may or may not have a small collection of 30 and 50 round magazines. 5. Crowbar 6. Any large knife or hatchet I pick up on the way out of the house 7. S&W .38 revolver (not at the house right now, getting some work done on it, new finish job and new trigger) 8. Basic tac gear, and a camelback
My preferred weapons would be a shovel and thermite for getting rid of stairs, both readily available at any B&Q or home-base. Guns are out of the question as there is almost no access to them here, also since they tend to be noisy wouldn't they attract the zombies. Mag-lite, small bolt cutters, knives and some form of GPS device preferably solar powered would be useful too.
The idea of taking out the stairs is so that you can keep all your supplies upstairs and wait it out, if is a fully blown outbrake though then no amount of stair destorying is going to help you unless you are in a very tall building where there are no zombies above you. In that case you can just destroy the first flight and fill all sinks/baths/buckets ect. with as much water as possible while it is running and hope you have enough supplies to last you until they figure out how to take the cities back.
Ideally in any large outbreak you would want to get out of any built up area as fast as possible and head into the wilderness, fortunately once you leave the central belt in Scotland that's rather easy. Of course this all depends on the zombie type, with Romero zombies as long as you stay away from built up areas you will be safe for a while. If, on the other hand it was an outbreak similar to 28 days / weeks later no where is safe. A good place to hole up would be a village clinic as you access to sterilising equipment and medicine, hospitals, as they tend to be in cities would be too dangerous to stay in for long maybe a quick raid for supplies on the way out of the city depending again on zombie type and time available.
Thermite as well as being good for destroying / sealing buildings burns white hot is useful for signalling in a pinch as flares and magnesium ribbon are harder to come by.
And I'm about to make another addition to my anti-zombie gear. There is a gun shop about 40 minutes down the road, or so, that has a couple of big old barrels, all of them full of Mosin Nagants, each with a minor flaw here, or blemish there, and they are priced from 25-45 bucks each, depending on condition. I heard that a couple of them are in perfect condition, except they have no stock, and since I would purchase a synthetic stock anyways...
OH, and Jason, do you know where all the "Polish people are stupid" jokes come from? Hitler made fun of the people of Poland to dehumanize them. I think he did that to another group, didn't he? Oh right, the Jews that he slaughtered. And do you know why he considered them stupid? Because they tried to defend their country, only they weren't as industrialized as other parts of europe, so they rode to meet the German forces on horseback. They were "stupid" because they wanted to defend themselves.
wallybman, the 22 and the 38 would seem a bit lightweight for anti-zombie work to me. On the other hand, you can cart around a boatload of ammo for them.
How are the concrete stairs designed? Is it a solid hunk of concrete? I don't think I have ever seen something like that on apartment buildings or condos where I am. The stairs I have seen are two steel support beams going down each side of the step. There's a thin steel bar underneath each step to support it, and the actual steps are concrete.
In a situation like that, I'd recommend thermite. You can cut through the two main support beams and the supported steps should fall. Of course, if you are planning on this, don't forget a rope or ladder. You'll probably need to go out at some time, and you'll want to be able to get back in if you can.
wallybman, the 22 and the 38 would seem a bit lightweight for anti-zombie work to me. On the other hand, you can cart around a boatload of ammo for them.
All you need to do is punch through the head. Larger caliber rounds just weigh you down with heavy ammo and don't give you any other real benefits. Getting a round into the brain is the most important part. Looking like a badass with a big gun is not. Also,the ability to carry more ammo with you is a huge advantage in a long term situation, especially if you are away from any major infrastructure where transportation is a lot easier. If I was on the run from zombies, I would want the advantage of being able to move through rough terrain like forests and such, where zombies would have more trouble walking, without exerting myself with a heavy pack of ammo. 22. rounds are also very widely used, so finding more ammo would be much easier.
.22 not big enough? Do you realize what caliber round the m-16/m-4 fires? A .223 round, which isn't much bigger around. However, the .223 slug is a bit longer, and therefore heavier. Weight of slug, by length, allows for more penetration, since you have more slug behind the leading tip. The extra weight is also why a .223 round needs more a charge sitting behind it, leading to a much larger cartridge. .22 slugs tend to be very short, and therefore much MUCH lighter. Lighter weight, in this case leads to a bit higher velocity at short to medium ranges. Anything past that, and a lack of mass, and therefore momentum, causes the round to drop quick. Why would you want a extreme velocity round with a short range? Simple. You put a small object traveling at such high speeds through a (relatively) soft object, and it won't matter how big the exit hole is, it will suck all the soft, squishy, contents out said small hole. One shot, one kill. Especially if you are firing high end match grade rounds. A bit more costly, but well worth it.
And a .38 will kill a son of a bitch dead. You put it up against a decaying son of a bitch, and you will kill it deader. We aren't trying to shoot through an engine block, we are trying to splatter heads not much more structurally sound than a not-quite-ripened cantaloupe.
Are you worried that the zombies will be wearing Kevlar? I don't think we need to plan for that eventuality.
In any major zombie outbreak, military and police forces will respond. If they win, then there are no worries for people like us. If they lose, there will be kevlar zombies.
Comments
If nothing else, history enriches your life in the same way music and art do. It helps you to understand why things are they way they are and it gives you context for appreciating current events. Don't deny yourself the pleasure of understanding just because you've made an arbitrary decision about what will be useful to you. You're too young to have a perfect knowledge of what you need and don't need to know. For that matter, everyone on this board is too young to limit themselves in such a way, myself included.
Finally, it's been my experience that, if you begin to learn even a little about something you think you might not care to know about, you will find it rewarding and interesting in and of itself just to know something new. The interest will snowball if you have even a little bit of innate curiosity.
What's everyone's thought on melee weapons? Improvised or otherwise. How about spears? they may be hard to lug around but you have your enemy at arms length and full of holes.
I can't imagine why anyone would choose to remain ignorant, but if you want to go through life with a self-imposed handicap, then I can't stop you. Good luck with all that. Do you Albionese even have grenades?
Q: How did the Nazis defeat the Polish?
A: They marched in backwards and said they were leaving.
1. Mossberg 500 pump action, 19 inch barrel plus kutts compensator, open choke
2. 2-3/4 inch winchester #8 shot, 7/8 ounce load, 1450 fps (outdoor use)
3. 2-3/4 inch remmington #8 shot, 1-1/8 ounce load, 1200 fps (indoor use)
4. Ruger 10/22 lr with 22 inch varmint barrel, 1400 fps rounds, competition trigger job, open sights, and I may or may not have a small collection of 30 and 50 round magazines.
5. Crowbar
6. Any large knife or hatchet I pick up on the way out of the house
7. S&W .38 revolver (not at the house right now, getting some work done on it, new finish job and new trigger)
8. Basic tac gear, and a camelback
A good place to hole up would be a village clinic as you access to sterilising equipment and medicine, hospitals, as they tend to be in cities would be too dangerous to stay in for long maybe a quick raid for supplies on the way out of the city depending again on zombie type and time available.
Thermite as well as being good for destroying / sealing buildings burns white hot is useful for signalling in a pinch as flares and magnesium ribbon are harder to come by.
And I'm about to make another addition to my anti-zombie gear. There is a gun shop about 40 minutes down the road, or so, that has a couple of big old barrels, all of them full of Mosin Nagants, each with a minor flaw here, or blemish there, and they are priced from 25-45 bucks each, depending on condition. I heard that a couple of them are in perfect condition, except they have no stock, and since I would purchase a synthetic stock anyways...
OH, and Jason, do you know where all the "Polish people are stupid" jokes come from? Hitler made fun of the people of Poland to dehumanize them. I think he did that to another group, didn't he? Oh right, the Jews that he slaughtered. And do you know why he considered them stupid? Because they tried to defend their country, only they weren't as industrialized as other parts of europe, so they rode to meet the German forces on horseback. They were "stupid" because they wanted to defend themselves.
In a situation like that, I'd recommend thermite. You can cut through the two main support beams and the supported steps should fall. Of course, if you are planning on this, don't forget a rope or ladder. You'll probably need to go out at some time, and you'll want to be able to get back in if you can.
Also,the ability to carry more ammo with you is a huge advantage in a long term situation, especially if you are away from any major infrastructure where transportation is a lot easier. If I was on the run from zombies, I would want the advantage of being able to move through rough terrain like forests and such, where zombies would have more trouble walking, without exerting myself with a heavy pack of ammo. 22. rounds are also very widely used, so finding more ammo would be much easier.
And a .38 will kill a son of a bitch dead. You put it up against a decaying son of a bitch, and you will kill it deader. We aren't trying to shoot through an engine block, we are trying to splatter heads not much more structurally sound than a not-quite-ripened cantaloupe.