When the Zombie apocalypse begins, you might be in a country where guns and ammo are not accessible. Like in Europe. And it is in times like these that you need to fight with everything you got.

Combating The Dead with guns..
Simple tip.. one shot one kill...but as a caveat only when practical (i.e perched in a good high vantage point).
But first and foremost, your goal should be survival! Better to aim center mass to at least knockdown your undead opponent, than to sit there, hands shaking trying to draw a bead on the head!
Ensure that the weapon you have is zeroed to your eyes. Scavenging can be used as a last resort, but an inexperienced shooter can get themselves or their friends killed in a deadly engagement. Real life is not like Hollywood where every gun a person picks up is automatically zeroed.

So here are a few pointers.

• Try breaking bones and jaws
• Wear a long sleeve t-shirt and a high collar
• When holding a zombie, make sure his teeth are facing the other direction
• You don't have to completely destroy the zombie. Reduce him to a head and torso Monty Python style and have a good laugh.
• And always be wary of getting infected blood on you!

Melee weapons are my favorite. I have never held a gun and I am not going to try it the first time during the zombie apocalypse. And the best weapon I can get here is a kitchen knife. So I am going to stick with melee weapons.
When using melee weapons it is best to choose according to weight. If you can hold a big axe, then you should use it. If you are not strong enough for large weapons, use knifes and lead pipes etc.

Don't fight fire with fire.
When fighting a zombie it is important to remember zombies don't feel pain so if set them on fire they might not
stop. Using moltolov cocktails, plastic explosives, or any other weapons using fire could set your zombie on fire.
A flaming zombie is twice as bad as a normal zombie. It could take minutes for the fire to go out or kill the zombie, so if you see yourself fighting a zombie with a moltolov cocktail empty the bottle and use the bottle as a melee weapon.

Here are some tips when using melee weapons.

• Start with quick jabs and short swings
• Always go for the head, even with long weapons. Because when you aim for the legs, a large piece of your body is exposed.
• Mind your footwork
• If you are fighting multiple zombies, keep them in one line (don't get surrounded)
• When using knifes go for the neck to hit the spinal cord.

My favorite gear when going hand to hand with zombies, is leather armor. It is tough to bite trough and is very light. My weapon of choice is bare hands and a kitchen knife because it is light and doesn't need ammo.
I hope this is helpful for those without weapons, happy hunting!:D


Hand-To-Hand Combat
Contrary to what Mark Dacascos so brilliantly displayed us in I Am Omega, martial arts are inadvisable when combating the risen dead. This is tantamount to using one's fists in place of a baseball bat. The only two ways blunt impacts could kill a zombie is through destruction of the brain (it is hard to punch through a skull) or severe torsal bruising sufficient to induce internal hemorrhaging (requiring even more force). Your best bet would be to go for the head, and wear heavy boots if you can. DO NOT, however, take it into your head to go Keanu on Zack if you have no idea what you are doing. No matter how many times you have watched Matrix Reloaded, you will die a swift and agonizing death.

Nidhogg

I would only consider hand-to-hand if I had no other option. I would most likely be dressed for ease of movement save for a pair of combat boots and some steel vambraces so that bringing up my arms to protect myself wouldn't become totaly useless. As for what I would use it would have to be a Cold Steel Bush Machete. It's long enough to keep el Z at a distance. It combines the leverage of an ax and the weight and cutting surface of a machete. Aim for the neck then use the severed head as a soccer ball!
--------------------------------------------------quickrace89: While hand-to-hand can be an ammo-conserving, renewable, impressive (your fellow survivors may find your close-up tactics awe-inspiring) and environmentally-friendly way of dispatching zombies, it can prove to be fatal if you don't know the strengths and weaknesses of a zombie. Sure, they're a bit slower than humans, but they can hit far harder than we can, which requires you to be very fast and agile, otherwise you could wake up lacking an arm and very, very hungry.

alicestar: a few things that you should remember with hand to hand is that you must always be the first to strike, you don't want to be on the defensive my advice to you is to watch the movie "the protector" it is a good example of how to always be the attacker and it also shows a lot about elbow/ knee and off balance strikes. another thing to remember is that a ZED is going to do everything it can to bite you so you need to be able to control the fight when grappling and on the ground. a lot of you think that Brazilian jujitsu is the way to go but keep in mind that you don't ever have full head control in Brazilian jujitsu so you will die. for the most part keep it short and sweet. charge in, hit hard, break neck or get the hell away!


Dmurl5-

A few things. One, a zombie does not need blood to work, except the case of rage zombies. When you die, your heart stops, thus stopping all blood flow. Two, never, ever try to choke a zombie. This would result in instant death for you, as zombies do not need air. Choking relies on kills through suffocation, and a zombie would not need this luxury of air. Thus, the choking would fail. Three, there are more senses (such as smell) than sight. Don't spend valuable time going for the eyes. And four ties in with the last one, don't spend time breaking bones or jaws. Go for a head shot if possible (The temple is the softest part.) Get it over with and get away.


Klesh-

I admire your courage to go hand to hand with a being that is doing everything possible to eat you or bite you whatnot. a couple of comments and a BIG question. first, WHY DO YOU NOT LIKE USING GUNS? i just want to know. Of course if you are extremely comfortable with hand to hand or don't have a gun or ammo accessible i understand but if you gave me a choice i would take the run of the mill 12 Gauge shotgun or my preference an open iron sight MOSIN-NAGANT. a suggestion if you like close quarters, don't try to be a HERO. grab the shotgun and a saw. Do what you may when combining the two and go at it that way. One 2 3/4 inch to the cranium and problem solved.


wrong

in Britain thats in Europe in the rural areas everyone and their mums has got a gun
corporal Parker

The Professional: I agree with Alicestar there are ways to fight the Zeds empty handed. Save for runners, zombies are slow and dull-witted creatures. Even the ones that can work only the most basic tools (rocks, clubs or such) are still slow and dull-witted. This means that with proper timing and force, throws and escapes are invaluable. The ability to escape the groping hands of a Zed will serve you just as well as being able to pick one off at 300 yds. While many forms of martial arts teach this, they are intended to cause pain from great force to vulnerable areas. While the pain factor is no longer viable, the force of your attack may still send a zombie staggering. Some areas of the body deal very little pain, but will send a linebacker to his...well back. Simply from altering the center of gravity of your attacker.

So rather than disregarding H-T-H combat or limiting it to a one shot make or break, we should reevaluate how we can make it work to our advantage. I may not be able to kill a Zed with my bare hands or feet, but I can get them the hell off of me to fight back or run away.

McSkullcracken: If you are going to use melee weapons to fight zombies, know your own strengths and weaknesses. If a sledgehammer is too large and unwieldy for you, don’t use it. If you simply do not have the strength to swing a machete or other bladed weapon through a zombie’s neck or skull, try a blunt weapon to crush the skull instead. A one-handed weapon is probably preferable as it gives you a free hand to do other things or, if you are skilled enough, to wield another weapon. Think about practicality when choosing a weapon, not flashiness. For instance, do not use a Katana if you have little to no experience using one or if you are not 100% sure it is real and not a replica. Try a simpler weapon, like a heavy tool. Remember, if it can kill a human with a blow to the head it can kill a zombie.

DustinEchos104: I have said it many times before and I'll say it again, guns are millions of times more effective than any melee weapon you could find, the human skull has evolved to reduce the possibility of crushing trauma to the brain, in buckles in sections so that the force is spread out and wont kill a zombie, you would need to do a full swing with a sledgehammer to actually pulp a brain through a skull. Most of the deaths from head trauma in humans comes from internal bleeding, which won't happen in zombies because they don't need their blood, and concussion, which won't afflict the already dead either. And unless you know know how to hit between those plates mid lunge on every hit, I pity any one with a blade. Even if you try to cut off a head, hard in its own right, the head will keep snapping and infecting. I know that in a fight I wouldn't want all of my footing to be covered in slick, carnivorous enemies and then the clean up afterwards would be the most tedious work of all post Apocalypse Earth. Most death is caused not to the brain, but to the support systems to the brain, if you cut someone badly enough, anywhere on their body, they may bleed to death or drop into shock and have their bodies systematically shut down on them, but that can't happen in a zombie, it has to be brain or nothing.
The answer to fighting zombies is to either a) not fight them, out-think them or b) kill them before they can get close enough to do anything to you. Bows take years of practice and often won't penetrate a skull anyways, crossbows are rarer and take too long to reload, but guns have been perfected over centuries so that children can literally use them to kill, and very quickly at that. If you are fighting zombies you won't need military grade fully automatic machine guns, all you'll need is a simple, accurate single shot rifle to hit them in the head, and if you are going to be fighting close quarters you will finally have a use for the multitude of handguns laying around after most of the worlds population has been eaten. A round from a pistol to the head will either bounce around inside the head, pulping the brain or blow out the back of the skull taking most of the brain with it, both sure fire ways to make sure it wont get back up again. The only reason to have melee weapons is because you are somewhere that you don't have access to any ammo, such as England, or for the occasions when you can't slide a clip of ammo into a pistol fast enough, but you do miraculously have the time to pull out an effective sword or club, after having let zombies overrun you from the kill zone which extends out hundreds of yards with a gun, unlike the 5 feet you get with a machete.
Another important thing to remember is that zombies aren't the only things you will fight, if you come across someone who thinks that you have more food than you need, or women, or booze, or just about anything for that matter, they will kill you for it. There will be no law except that which is held in your own arms, and if they hold a sawed off 12-gauge in theirs and you have a pair of Bowies, they'll blow you down before you could say uncle. One of the main driving forces of human progress is the fact that you can never let anyone who is against you have anything you don't, if they have a knife, don't try to box them to death, if they have a shot gun, don't think that knife will get you anything more than robbed, if they have a rifle, don't think your pistol will cut it from 300 yards away, they don't even need to hit you in the head, hit you pretty much anywhere with a gun in a world with no hospitals and you're a goner, especially if you intend to continue to fight zombies in that state.

zombie: MGNUARRGUHZAA! *moan*

Hell_Razor: I agree with DustinEchos104. Melee combat with a zombie is dangerous to any person who attempts it. However, I would like to point a few things out.
1) Unlike myself, many people, and not just Americans, live in parts of the world where civilian firearm access is limited. Not only does this cause issues of availability, but it also hampers a person's exposure to firearms and firearm safety. Unless a citizen of Britain or Germany has served in the armed forces or the police, they are likely to have never picked a gun up in their life.
2) Every person with half a brain knows which end goes bang. Yet firearm safety and effective shooting take time and practice. The last thing you want to do is put a gun in the hands of someone who's only combat experience is Halo, and expect them to hit a moving target as small as a Zed head. Even worse, they can do some serious harm to those they are with unintentionally.
3) Firearms are loud. The undead utilized all five senses in a much more efficient fashion than normal sight-dependant people. Unless you want to pay 200 bucks and give the FBI a background check and two sets of fingerprints to get a license, most people can't get a sound suppressor. And take it from an Iraq vet, they don't supress the noise nearly as much as video games make them out to be. You rely on subsonic ammunition to fire correctly, and this can decrease the range and penetration. The crack of a skull or the thud of a head hitting a ground is nowhere near as loud as my AR-15.
4) Firearms require ammunition and cleaning. This can vary from gun to gun, but if you want your weapon to work, you need to clean it regularly. It will do you no good to have your gun jam on you in close quarter combat. And you might as well use your gun as a club if you run out of ammunition.
5) Blades don't need to be reloaded. All you have to do is clean and sharpen them, and all it takes is a rag and a grindstone.

What can't be overstated is that every weapon has its advantages and its disadvantages. Blades or hammers are great for close and personal, but good luck if you can kill anything past your reach. Firearms can deal with multiple adversaries at once at greater ranges, but the sound can carry for miles, attracting unwanted attention. In preparing your arsenal for any sort of violent encounter, you must obtain a mix of weapons for optimal results. For example, come Z-Day, I'm going to rock my AR-15, my XD .45, and a machete. Maybe I'll throw my AK in my backpack in case I need it. You don't need to blow that amount of money on guns like I do. You can pick up a simple pump action shotgun for less than 200 bucks, and carry a hammer.

quickrace89: Hell_Razor, once Z-Day happens the FBI won't really mind whether you buy 50 silencers. This is because most of them will be ZOMBIES. If you really need guns and ammo, then wait until Z-Day has happened, and cut your way into an Army Base. The army won't stop you either: the army doesn't have a Zombie Survival policy.

Hell_Razor: But the point of this site is to prepare the average joe for any zombie encounter, and not just a Class-IV outbreak. Besides, good luck finding a suppressor after Z-Day and all manufacturing has shut down.

Not all fighting skills are hand-to-hand

Yes weapons ARE superior to hand and foot combat in any Zombie related happening but as this article is souly dedicated to the unarmed fight debating the question mentioned above is with out point.
In this part I`d like you to consider the ide that not every fight with the Zombie must end with one of you dead (or dead`er if you please) but rather ponder the ide that you migtht just need to use your arms and legs to move theirs... I think we can all agree that the Zombies preferd stans is walking with its arms stretched out forward as this will prepare it to grab anything that comes within its reach.
I`d also like to mention at this point that what I'm about to suggest is alot harder than it may sound so practise practise Practise!

The moment your get within arms reach move (switch if your left handed) your Left arm in a small semi-circle outwards up and in and push Zombies right arm inward to its own body, Once this has been done (and you want this to happen fast) twist your body pelvis and up inward to the right and now use your rigtht hand to push (NOT PUNCH) Zack hard straig away from you aiming to hit its shoulder (if you did the first part rigth Zacks torso ougth to have twisted sligtly inward puting it in a position were its center point of gravity wont work to its advantage this is key as Zacks ballance is already less than a normal living humans)

The move above is just an example of martial-art that results in the Zombie failing backwards and more to the point AWAY from you. Keep in mind how-ever that this will as I said not kill Zack but it migtht just buy you those crucial seconds you`ll need to escape or better yet arm your self to figtht the next one ..

Boyd

AZ-Terminator001
seeing that we are talking about melee weapons, look to the pre-gun eras.
Axes, Swords, Halbreds, Katanas they all work
JUST MAKE SURE THEY ARE AUTHENTIC!!!!!!!!!!!


Tebben:
It would be beneficial for everyone to take a look at the Army's bayonet fighting techniques. Check out this FM.
If you really want to get in some melee fighting, at least have a firearm with you. You don't even need the bayonet. Melee combat with an AR-15 utilizes the buttstock just as much as the bayonet itself, and you won't have Z-blood all over the place.

mehillus: this page is missing one thing.
how many attackers are there?
if it is a lone z, my fighting tactic would be to knock it down, stomp its jaw,[and if applicable] id pull out my fire axe, and kill it using the pointy end [not the wedge end]. if i didn't have a weapon, i would first stomp the jaw, then the pelvis then finish off the head with whatever heavy blunt object i could find[no sense in wasting a perfectly good foot right?]
if it is a group, and i was alone i would assertain my most direct escape route, knock down any z that gets in my way, and run like a motherf**ker , get to high ground, and take 5.

Nick: All I say is buy a katana you can cut limbs off thus opening a blow to the face. Also if your friend is being attacked leave him better him only if he is really that close to you a blow to you head will kill you to...

Cyclops: there are two easy ways to dispose of a human hand to hand that can get rid of a zombie, one as mentioned before is snapping the neck with a quick jerk, the other is a blunt force applied behind the head, since the front end of the skull is thick the back lacks protection



Nosfera2
only way im goin melee is if i absolutely have to or if im creepin with a heavy blunt weapon like a lead pipe or a spiked mace something to deal severe cranial damage and most likely attack from behind to target the back of the skull orthe back of the neck to sever the spinal cord

Ubernerd
I may be a nerd, but only mentally. For having no exercise usually other than wrestling for fun, I have an oddly strong physique, and I love to fight, as sick as that sounds. I love studying fighting techniques and trying them out.
You'd want to wear thick clothes and gloves in case you hit the zombie in the mouth and the disease is infectious through saliva. Just slack it in the jaw so it can't bite and give it a severe chicken wing to break his arms.