Yes you heard me right, you’re not supposed to shoot zombies. Well not all kinds of zombies, of course zombies that die like normal human beings “aka infected”, have no problem being shot at. But the classic zombie, who needs a bullet to the brain, should not be shot. Let me tell you why…

You will miss more than you hit

These zombies walk at a varying paces and constantly trip over stuff. Their pattern of movement will also be very unpredictable. Besides that, their heads are very small objects that keep moving around. Now this is still good target practice of course, since shooting moving targets in the head isn’t that difficult with a little exercise. The difficulty is stress shooting. You’re tired, running all the time and probably breathing heavily. These are not the conditions you have on a range. Where you can sit behind a bench, bipod and all and plink “moving targets”. Another small detail, it isn’t just the head these walkers need destroyed. You have to destroy the brain stem. This is an even smaller target, behind a skull and slabs of other grey matter that can alter the bullets trajectory. You will attract more zombies than you kill

Most of our readers live in the USA and are, given the states Google Analytics tells us you’re from, probably gun owners. Or at least live in gun friendly states. You’ll also know how much noise a gun makes. So for shooting one zombie, that might take two or three precious cartridges, will also attract any zombie in at least a hundred yard radius. Given sound travels in all directions, you now have zombies closing in from all directions. On the plus side, no need for checking your firing sector, since that just became a 360! You need the bullets for other humans and hunting

Spare the rounds for the targets that matter! Sure if you really have no other option and zombies are so close you need to shoot an opening, by all means use a firearm. But for the rest, evade zombies and use the rounds to hunt in vast forests, to fend of other groups of less friendly survivors, or to help an overrun friend out of his misery before being eaten alive. My point being here, why spend ammo shooting zombies that will only get you into more trouble. Instead of turning every cartridge into a weeks worth of protein packed meat to eat?

I’m sure there are lots of reasons to use guns against zombies. One that comes to mind is using them before the whole world is overrun. Meaning military and civilian gun owners can, and probably will, work together during an outbreak to fight a common enemy. In case of The Walking Dead I imagine the south being more an “all you can shoot firing range”, rather than the hell hole portrayed in movies. With more bullets and guns than people (aka zombies), lots of folks will have fun stopping the spread instead of actually being eaten alive.

For people in less gun friendly states and countries… Just locking your doors and barricading your windows will give governments enough time and space to just drive over these shambling corpses with a tank. Or truck.

Therefor, the points above go for after the world is overrun. Before that, use the apocalypse to let of a little steam and feel less like a zombie yourself 😉