Bow strings have a shelf life of about 5 yrs and roughly 1,000-1,2000 shots. After that, their basically worthless unless you know how to build your own strings. I mean you can continue to use old string but you run the risk of injury.

As for Ricks, knife moment, it's called product placement. Gerber pays AMC for those scenes.

 

thats assuming you survive 5 years. and in all likelihood the Z population would be greatly diminished by then and the ones still up and about would probly be very weak. i believe bows and crossbows are the way to go. slingshots could be useful too

 

That really sounds Grim, maybe we should take a suicide pack instead

I've had a bow in my hands since I was a kid and believe they have a place in the ZA. I'm just not ready to throw my full support behind them because Daryl looks cool with one. I've got enough ammo to hold out 5yrs with a shelf life of 20yrs. You throw in a couple suspressors and I'll have a smile every time I pull the trigger

 

They should have a lot better stockpile of ammo and assorted weapons. Instead of dicking around in Atlanta with vatos, they should have been looking for guns & bullets. And they should head for a military base and get some land mines.

 

The problem I have with the knives is more about usefulness. Rick is right that they should be as quiet as they can so they don't draw more walkers. But, as Kevin Smith pointed out on Talking Dead, people have enough trouble sticking a straw into a juice-box, let alone a knife into someone's skull. Bones are not all that soft. My suggestion to Rick would be 1)in the eye, and 2)a bigger knife.

And fwiw, I agree with R3VOLV3R. Weapons, food and medicine should be their all consuming priority.

 

lets be real, the Fight Club quote of "on a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone reaches zero" (idk if thats the exact quote but w/e) is very prevalent here. and my backing of bow weapons has nothing to do with Daryl "looking cool." im just saying suppressors are scarce (and illegal) even now so having one in a ZA is highly unlikely. i still say they need to stock up on potatoes.

 

What ever happened to those bad ass knives and machetes they found in the episode one of this new season? You know, the ones Carl found and Glen used to kill that walker in the pharmacy

I'd be usin them all the time

 

What's wrong with a good old claw hammer?

Much more effective than a knife when it comes to penetrating skulls.

 

I totally agree. Machetes AND crowbars are especially good for cracking zombie skulls. Why they don't have a stockpile of those...no one knows.

 

False: Supressors are legal for private ownership in 25-30 States and completely plausible in a ZA. Just waiting on the BATF paper work/ Tax Stamp right now and my group will have a legal suppressed .308 Win custom built bolt action rifle. I'm totally stoked!!

 

Gordan Freeman had the right idea, crowbars all the way!
You can open pretty much any door with it and if you sharpen the angled side a bit it'll puncture any zombie's skull.


I've got a couple of those lying around.

 

By suppressors you guys mean silencers?

Seems to me that unlike ammo, arrows and bolts can be used again and again. I'd go to the nearest hunting store, stock the hell up on bow strings and arrows and invest in some serious training. Quiet, lethal, and practice doesn't waste ammo.

 

Silencer is a Hollywood term and a term used by political parties to demonise Supressors.

Bow strings have a shelf life of 5yrs while common non corrosive ammo has a shelf like of 20-30 yrs...Corrosive ammo has a shelf life longer than our life span.

Anyhow, the truth is there is enough ammo and semi-automatic weapons floating around the US to arm everyone. The show and books down play this a lot. It wouldn't be any fun watching a show with groups like me and my friends who owns 10's of thousands of ammo and dozen gun safes full of guns.

 

It is truly amazing how much Hollywood distorts reality and does a disservice to so many.

Arrows/bolts would be implausible in the ZA for a variety of reasons. First, they simply do not exist in the numbers necessary. While every WalMart (at least in the Southeast US) has a well stocked ammunition case, arrows and bolts are primarily in specialty sporting goods stores. Second, even if they did exist in sufficient numbers one would constantly have to move about with a bowed instrument, which is bulky and cumbersome. The average survivor would have no experience with a compound bowed instrument- which is much more difficult to effectively use than shown on television. Third, one effectively has a single shot weapon. The need to score a head shot would necessitate allowing the zombies into a close enough range so that, in the time it would take after firing the first shot, to retrieve a bolt or arrow from where ever one carried them, notch it, dra....oops, eaten. The Lord of The Rings' Legolas was an elven prodigy- no man could hope to duplicate his speed and accuracy with a bow. Even Robin Hood would be over run by zombies before he felled 6 of them.

The firearm is the only plausible weapon in such a scenario in that a powerful weapon capable of stopping a foe with a single shot from a great distance can be carried on a persons side, ready to fire multiple shots within moments. Each individual shot is capable of such destructive force even an amateur could be expected to prevail in many situations. Additional magazines could be easily carried and are so light, relatively, that even a small person might have 50-100 rounds to expend. Compared to the 8-20 if one carried bolts or arrows. Guns are fairly proficienct- many models able to fire 400 times or more repeatedly without physically breaking down themselves or their handler. Even a strong armed man would be spent after loosing 10 or 15 arrows from a bow. A crossbow would be much easier but still incomparable to the ease of using a firearm.

As has already been discussed, there is no shortage of ammuntion or firearms. And given that survival is a necessity and the only job, it stands to reason that some will put themselves to work manufacturing more ordnance. This is done today by many enthusiasts and it can logically be assumed that these types would have the most probable chance of even surviving to this point. Others would have full time positions as firearm and ammo recovery specialists.

Suppressors can be easily created in any machine shop if noise is a concern. Again, it stands to reason that the only people alive at this point would be those capable of doing this or quickly learning how.

 

Agreed,

The only reason people aren't mass manufacturing suspressors is do to the legal requirements surrounding them. Once the ZA hits I can promise you people are going to be manufacturing full auto parts and suspressors like crazy lol

As for reloading,

 

Yep. It is useful to have both. Bows seem great for stealth purposes, but guns are better in the evident of being rushed by too many at once to handle with a bow. Even Daryl must agree as he has and uses both, just that he prefers the bow when on missions that require more stealth. But I also see large double bladed hunting knives as important to have as well.

 

I consider these another useful weapon that a group should have.

 

Even an expert archer isn't as accurate as a run of the mill shooter, especially if talking about a rifle or shotgun. Pistols are a different story.

 

I have a compound bow I've had for years it has metal strings and the strings are still awesome. Its going on 15 years now.