In movies we very often see our heroes swinging hammers, baseball bats and other blunt force weapons. But would these really be effective? And how practical are they?

Efficiency

I have no doubt that a good wooden baseball bat can crush a mushy zombie skull, but will it destroy the brain stem? It’s often that particular part of the brain that needs to be destroyed in order to kill a zombie. Unless we’re of course talking “infected”, like in movies as 28 days later. In that case anything that kills a normal human would also kill the infected. For other blunt force weapons, such as hammers and smaller ones, they will probably just make them angry and put your hand dangerously close to their mouth.

Affordability and availability

This is truly where blunt force weapons shine. You can find them everywhere! From sporting goods stores, malls (don’t go there…), DIY stores and probably your own house. Cost wise most blunt force weapons won’t set you back too far either. Professional tools like the functional reproduction of all sorts of blunt force weapons by Cold Steel, still won’t cost you over $70. Or just pick up $100 worth of baseball bats, machetes and other items at Walmart. Spread these around the house, in your car, maybe one at work somewhere and you are a bit more prepared already. Not just from zombies!

The down sides

There are a few down sides to using blunt force weapons of course. First of all, you’ll have to get really close to a rotting corpse who’s hell bent on eating you alive. This exposes you to great danger and is always a bad idea. There are so many things that can go wrong when you get that close! You might slip, the zombie might catch your arm, maybe you didn’t hit him right and he doesn’t go down… Who knows? But my biggest reservation of all is that it’s insanely tiring! Go put water melons all over your backyard, grab a baseball bat and sprint between them to smash them to pieces. You’ll be exhausted in no time and waste a lot of energy that’s way too valuable in a survival situation. Not to mention the fact that these melons aren’t attacking you.

In conclusion

Blunt force weapons can work, if they’re sturdy and have the mass to do damage, but that will come at the cost of great energy loss. My advice would be to have blunt force weapons around, they’re perfect for being stealthy and clearing buildings. But if you can… Get a Ruger 1022, suppress it, buy 25 round mags (not 25 circular mags) for it and a whole lot of subsonic ammo. Then just plink the area clear of zombies, grab your baseball bat and loot the place!

PS: 22lr is exactly the same as the zombie genre. Buying it is all fiction, but it might become a reality at some point 😛