Weapon Madness – Round One – Melee Weapon Contest: Tire Iron vs. Hockey Stick
Not surprising in the least, the majority of the group decided to go with the crossbow over the taser gun. Still, there were some interesting ideas raised over the use of the taser gun with these zombies being of the Romero variety. Here’s Kyle’s take on the issue:
Having said that, muscles still work based on electrical impulses, a taser would be an effect way to disable a zombie quickly and quietly. I don’t know about reload times, if it’s faster than a crossbow it would be quite an effective short to medium range weapon. Recharging it (even with a hand cranked generator) would be easier than finding crossbow arrows. Looking at Stun Guns, if those little wires broke, you could probably easily mod the gun, and turn it into a cattle prod. Stun Gun Versus Crossbow, crossbow does win, but if you modded it into a cattle prod, it would make a very effective short range weapon.
Interesting indeed.
This next matchup pits a good old fashioned tire iron versus a hockey stick.
Tire Iron
Pros: Good skull crushing potential, durable, able to use as a makeshift crowbar
Cons: need to be close, vibrations, could slip out of your head (sweaty plams)
Hockey Stick
Pros: great for knocking a zombie back, good melee distance, can use to push multiple zombies at once.
Cons: easy to shatter, hard to kill, not good against a horde
Just a reminder about the judging. These are Romero type zombies. They are slow and sluggish. Headshots or decapitations will kill them. Bites will lead to probable infection, then death. You should judge a weapon based on its effectiveness against one zombie to an entire horde. A weapon does not need to be lethal to be effective. If it buys you some time to escape, then it should be looked on with favor.
So which do you think will make for a better zombie killing weapon?
Filed under: Zombie Madness Bracket Challenge · Tags: Weapon Madness
Tire iron.
I group melee weapons into three rough groups. The tire iron is an okay member of the club group, while the stick falls under polearm. In most cases, the kill potential of the tire iron would put it on top, but in my own case, there’s a good chance I’d be keeping zeds from climbing onto a roof, so the stick would be a bit better.
The tire iron is the clear winner here. The hockey stick’s length makes it unwieldy in the situations where you need your melee weapon. Where I really need my melee weapon is when a zombie lurches out of a supply closet while I’m carrying supplies up a stairwell. Hockey stick just doesn’t cut it in that sort of situation. Tire iron can be hung off of a belt fairly easily, or attached to some sort of wrist strap so it’s always at hand. Hockey stick will either be carried or slung across the back. The first is impractical(why not just carry your gun?), and the second is inaccessible.
As far as combat goes, you’ve got to swing a hockey stick in a full “home run swing” style arc, and that’ll throw you off balance. And even then, it doesn’t have a lot of killing power. Remember, has to destroy the brain. It’s not even that useful for keeping zombies back because it’s not designed for a thrust. The blade will break pretty quickly and then you’ll just have a long stick that doesn’t weigh enough to effectively crush a skull. Tire iron can be swung in short arcs that won’t leave you wide open.
Any situation where I can use the hockey stick effectively, I can either use my ranged weapon or run. Either is a better option than melee combat. The tire iron shines in tight quarters, which is the only combat situation in which I’m going to be reaching for my melee weapon. For my money, though, the best melee weapon is a claw hammer, preferably a solid steel design similiar to the Estwing. It crushes skulls well in a tight spot, but it’s also extremely useful for boarding up windows, taking boards out of windows, and all sorts of similiar applications.
The example given about keeping them off of a roof? It won’t kill them, so you’ll just have more and more zombies down there. Don’t go to sleep anytime soon.
Tire Iron, the hockey stick doesn’t have enought weight behind it to be lethal.