So everyone is talking about the strengths and weaknesses of shotguns, pistols, assault rifles, and various other types of firearms. But what about ammunition? Now, I am not talking about caliber per say, but types of ammo. Well, let's break it down, shall we?

Hollow-point VS Standard Ammo


I keep hearing everyone saying “I carry nothing but hollow-point”, or “hollow point rules.” Don’t get me wrong, the hollow point is great for stopping power, which I will explain later, but it provides no more penetration than its non hollow point counter part. The purpose of the hollow-point’s design is not penetration, but stopping power. When contact is made, the hollow point flattens to half its size. This provides more stopping power by, for lack of a better term, shredding the inside of what ever it comes into contact with. A secondary effect of the hollow point is to minimize the chance of rounds traveling thorough your suspect and striking someone else. This is usually accomplished by the round lodging it’s self into the subject. One of the hollow-points attributes is slightly better accuracy than a full metal jacket round. This is occurs due to the fact that the heaviest portion of the bullet is in the middle towards the rear. This accidental side effect causes the bullet to stay stable longer and ultimately provides straighter flight. Which brings me to my point….why hollow-point? Their main advantage is stopping power not penetration which stopping power means nothing when it comes to zombies…well at least not the stopping power that hollow-points promote. Before I get a bunch of nasty comments please hear this…I am not knocking hollow points! I have them in my Glock .45cal and my Springfield XD 9MM right now. But then again, my job calls for stopping power. All I am saying is, save the money when stockpiling ammo and get just plain old full metal jackets. Trust me, it really adds up when you go to buy ammo in bulk…and who knows with the money you save you can get another gun or more supplies.

Frangible ammo


Frangible ammo is several different composite materials compressed together to make a bullet. It was designed for several different reasons such as indoor firing ranges that wanted a lead free environment, close quarter combat, police departments that didn’t want rounds going through walls and striking people, and also environmental friendliness for outdoor ranges. It’s touted as “still being as deadly as a standard lead bullet as long as the bullet makes contact before it fragments.” Before it fragments is the key word! I don’t like these rounds for several reasons. Frangible rounds won’t penetrate steel, which means they won't penetrate car doors…that’s not good. An other reason I don’t like them is the fact that some studies have shown that when stored and stockpiled they can break down over time, and trust me the last thing you need is your bullet turning into dust when is strikes the head of a zombie! Also, don’t accidentally purchase this ammo thinking it’s a standard round. Such names a TAP made by Hornaday (pictured above) are advertised as tactical rounds but are just Frangible ammo…they can be easily identified by their red plastic-like tips. It would be best to just stay away from this ammo all together and once again stick to a full metal jacket round for both effective and cost reasons.

-Bundy747-

-Sumyunguy-
Not to knock anything posted, but in my opinion, hand loading, while semi-complicated to many and quite time consuming, would be the answer; and as an experienced hand loader, I feel that cast lead bullets (all lead, no copper or anything jacket) would be easy, as they can be manufactured by melting down wheel weights (what they use to balance your tires for your car most car dealerships with a service department have plenty of used ones in buckets) not extreme amounts of penetration, but a muzzle-loading musket can easily penetrate a skull even at 200 yards. Also, ammunition can be "recycled" so you will be shooting long after everyone else is out of ammo

~zombieshredder~ you could also use tracers which burn so you can see them. even though this could attract more zombies, its almost a sure kill, as not only would the initial hit do damage, but it would burn flesh also.


)))ALICESTAR(((
the questions here are:
power or penetration?
hollow point or FMJ?
explosive or incendiary?
shotgun or rifle?
A zombie is a unique creature in that it is already dead giving them the ability to potentially bounce back from whatever you throw at it. For your standard "dawn of the dead" zombie I would suggest long range (rifle) with AP ammo (tungsten core). For a 2nd best, FMJ for the reasons that you never want to be close to one, the farther the fight the better your odds. Here's the disadvantage: at close-range you have no knock down power to disable a charging foe. What good is a weapon that can't stop a target when it absolutely has to? For gathering/supply missions I would use 12ga slugs and hollow point ammo. The reason for that is energy dispersion. The pelvis is the best spot for this purpose because if you shatter the bones there is no physical way for the legs to carry weight allowing for a follow-up headshot. For all purposes, do not for any reason use specialty ammo (explosive, tracer, incendiary ect.). They destroy weapons and they suck. Tracers are going to draw a bright line to your location (big no-no). Explosive ammo just isn't going to do much unless its a 40mm HE round and if a magnesium phosphate (incendiary) round will melt a hole through 1\2 in steel, just think of what it does to your barrel on exit. In closing I would like to say that the best zombie killing ammo in a post apocalyptic world is the ammo that is most abundant! All ammo can be effective as long as your tactics are effective! Just remember to use the least amount of resources to inflict the greates amount of carnage! And for God's sake improvise; don't waist ammo if you're in a safe zone (i.e., makeshift castle). Get yourself a BFR (big f*!#ing rock), tie a rope to it and throw it off the roof of the building (retrieve and repeat as needed). just remember--in the right hands, everything is a weapon.



Z13: I have no problems with ammo at my own house. He have around 5000-10000 rounds of ammunition at my house. All live. If theres a Z-invasion, I'm good =D

SupersoldierRCP-as long as it kills the zed why do we care?
Vanrulzz agrees

Spraymachine: (aiming this @ SupersoldierRCP) Different bullets with different grains are meant for different purposes. A low grain (light bullet) will go faster at short distances with a flatter trajectory but lose velocity with longer shots, while a high grain (heavy bullet) will maintain it's velocity longer and are better for long range shots but will have more of a rainbow trajectory. A 38g bullet might penetrate farther than a 60g bullet at 40 yards, but the 60g bullet will penetrate more at 150 yards.
Experienced shooters will know how different bullets shoot in their guns and some make/carry range cards for the different ammunition they shoot. Range cards basically show how many clicks you need on the elevation knob on your sights to accurately hit targets at different distances. Knowing your ammo will make the difference between a head shot and a neck shot. Remember that sweat in training saves blood on the battlefield!
How to make a range card

Heheiamman: good weapon that can run on a lot of different ammo types!
zombie amazing gun

Quickrace89: I'm just speculating here, but a hollow-point bullet would explode once inside the brain of the zombie, increasing the chance that a single head-shot will eliminate the zombie. Because, some parts of the brain aren't essential for a zombie to do its thing, and if your FMJ bullet goes through the brain but doesn't hit anywhere that is vital for the zombie, you've wasted time and a bullet. On the other hand, FMJ's are far more common, and if you take the time to figure out where you need to hit, you should be right.

The Professional: If I am correct, "stopping power" means the force of impact causing the target to fall. I believe that this works well against a zombie if say you need to delay their attack. Imagine a scenario where you cannot beat the horde, you must escape, all you can do is stop the ones that are the closest to buy time. Firing at their legs or waist may cause them to fall, and slow their attack. Also, not just for the Zeds, one must be prepared for the human threat of the outbreak. Disasters such as this would cause the criminal element to appear in droves. So when making preparations for the invasion, you have to prepare for both. If it can't work against zombies can it work for humans? ( and vice versa ) If then you say no to both questions, then you should discredit the weapon, armor etc.

Cjoatey: I'm planning on carrying a SIG 556 and a Remington 870. From what I have heard from people who have fired the SIG, it is accurate, and the SWAT version puts people down. The Remington would be used at close range, i.e. Raiding/Supply gathering.

SOCT-1:

Also we will all assume I'm talking about the AKS 7.62X39 round
(From most to least)

Heres the progression of effectiveness of discussed round types:
1: Explosive
2. Hollowpoint
3. Softnose
4. FMJ

Progression of cost (Least to greatest):
1. FMJ
2. Softnose or hollowpoint
3. Explosive

What you do is balance out your resources don't buy 20 rounds of XP(Explosive) ammo if you can buy 150 rounds of hollowpoint ammunition. But on the other hand don't buy 10,000 rounds of FMJ or ball ammo that will only put a clean hole through zacks skull without putting him down. Another issue to consider is certain rounds are not manufactured to reach out to 200-300meters. XP rounds generally are "Packed" To hit targets within 150 meters. If you factor in the weight of the bullet, center of mass, quality and quantity of the powder, material the bullets made of and so on you'll realise XP rounds are not great rounds for long-range engagements. If you have the resources by all means have a limited stock of XP ammo but do not consist of it.

The round I would suggest is the HP (Hollowpoint). Something everyone should know is the effect of the bullet on the target depends on the manufacturer. Some manufacturers do not properly "Construct" their bullets, I will refrain from the mechanics of this as I am no expert. As I was saying some bullets are not properly constructed and do not change shape on impact acting as a slightly more expensive FMJ round, on the other hand some bullets shatter into many small fragments causing massive amounts of damage and immediately stopping the target.

Softnose rounds are in essence FMJ rounds without the "Hard" nose. On impact the bullet's force causes it to expand causing the target to go into shock and die in a fairly short period of time. I do not recommend softnose rounds as they do not cause enough damage to put the zulus out of commission.

FMJ rounds are meant for two things in my opinion: For Geneva compliant militarise to satisfy the nonexistent "Rules of war" and for target practice. This round is not entirely useless as in certain weapons the bullet "Tumbles" causing a decent amount of damage. I would not recommend this round for any general use other than target practice as it is relatively cheap, extremely common, and "Balanced" as far as ranged shooting goes.

~Jack~:
When it comes to ammunition, knock-down power is a very important thing to have. Although, there is a point where aloot of knock-down power is too much knock-down power. Using a .50 cal bullet guarantees whatever you hit will go down and go down fast, but then again, if you can't handle the powerful recoil, you will go down too. So, I propose that you refrain from getting the biggest gun you can find, and go for something a bit smaller...

Most rifle rounds are intended to take down larger animals such as deer, antelope, bears, elk, people... overall, any rifle that can take down a medium-large animal quickly has enough take down power to take down a zombie regardless. So, I will move along to pistol-capable ammunition...

Now, the 9mm is very common and all, but it lacks quite a bit when it comes to knocking a person/zombie down. A way to combat this is to use a hollow point round, and not a full-metal jacket. A hollow point expands and transfers as much of the energy as possible to the target in the shortest ammount of time. If you do not have hollow-points available, any bullet that isn't a full-metal jacket is a good substitute.

So, we get to the area of larger rounds. Past the 9mm, you don't really need to worry about take-down power. They are all quite powerful, and hit pretty hard. Especially the .45 cal round... The .45 cal round is best known for it's no nonsense killing capability(wether it be full-metal jacket or hollow point, it doesn't matter). Not even a drug-induced rage can keep you alive if you are hit in the chest by it. The body simply stops working. Anything past the .45 is somewhat unnessesary.

Now, we get to what kind of round is best in a zombie outbreak...Obviously we want the biggest bang for our buck, and we do this by getting the smallest round that does the biggest damage for the lowest price.

Now, As said above, the FMJ doesn't expand, and overall doesn't do much damage unless the weapon it is fired from causes it to tumble. So, this is not one you want to use unless you want accuracy and range. This brings us to the hollow point and cousins. accuracy and range is limited somewhat, but the ammount of damage done well out-weighs and shortcommings...

And finally, the more exotic rounds such as the explosive, frangible, etc. These are expensive, but quite lethal...

Conclusion:
The larger caliber rounds are very devastating against a target no matter the kind. FMJ and hollow points will not matter. It is the smaller rounds you will have to worry about.

Hollow points are ideal if you want to do as much damage as you can in one shot, making them the ideal bullet for up-close zombie killing.

Explosive bullets, and other more exotic rounds, while they can do massive damage, are not worth the effort.

So, I propose that anything under the .44 cal be hollow point, and anything above be cheapest and easiest to get.

ForsakenTheDay
In response to alicestar " Explosive ammo just isn't going to do much unless its a 40mm HE round and if a magnesium phosphate (incendiary) round will melt a hole through 1\2 in steel, just think of what it does to your barrel on exit"
The round heats up from wind resistance and friction from the air so the round will be moderatly cool(the same as any round) till about 20+ft out so that wont damage the gun, thru heat atleast.

As for ammo type hollow i should think would do alot of damage to the brain and as some one else said would obliterate(i love that word) most bones wich is good since in most cases all u need to do is escape and a zed with a shattered leg or hip aint going far fast. . . . . normal zombie speed i guess. For Killing strictly like mainy on the site i say go with solid .22s of some shape or form since it'll scramble the zeds brain very efficently and are as common as mosquitos are in most places(i could come up with a better similie but i dont feel like it so) >: P