If your back’s to the wall with a herd of zombies closing in, what would you like as protection? I had a dream last night I was in land of the dead, with that Big Daddy guy and friends closing in: I had a machine gun of sorts that just wasnt doing the job. I prayed for a flame-thrower, but in the cold light of day, even this doesnt seem like a good idea. Any suggestions?
What kind of zombies are we talking about? Some have to be burned to stop them, others go down from a simple shot in the head, and others need to be completely decapitated. You’d definitely want to avoid a short-range weapon if at all possible, but I would think swinging something like a baseball bat, a sledgehammer, or a katana could help take their heads off if it came to that.
Go with the classic. Chainsaw. 
The bigger, the better.
Absolutely. Preferably duct taped to the bloody stump where your (laughing) hand used to be. Coupled with the Magical Shotgun of Neverending Ammo, you’ll be nigh invulnerable.
A lawnmower, if Dead Alive AKA Braindead is any indication.
Tripod-mounted heavy machine gun or 20mm cannon would be nice. Even if you didn’t get a headshot, they would be torn to pieces.
In terms of man-portable solutions, a flamethrower or minigun seems like your best bet.
Romero-type zombies; shotgun, one shot to the head and…well…there will be no more head
Return of the Living Dead zombies (O’Bannon Zombies) are trickier, due to their intelligence and the fact that “you can cut them into pieces, the pieces will still come after you”, cremation stops the individual zombies, but releases the 2-4 Trioxin gas back into the atmosphere to reanimate more corpses
“New” Dawn zombies; shotguns or other projectile weapons, headshots work best, but since these are fast swarmers, reload speed is essential, a shotgun would be good at a distance, but you would be better off with a faster-cycling firearm
that said, a thermonuclear device trumps all of the above firearms, even though it would cause Trioxin re-release in the case of the O’Bannon zombies
Easy. Loaded with 3" 00 Buckshot your choices are either a:
OR a:
These would be ideal for the decapitating = death zombies.
For Romero-type and “new” Dawn zombies:
How about a fully automatic machine gun that fires silver-plated wooden bullets, just in case you run across werewolves and vampires, too?
For the “Return of the Living Dead” type of zombies:
How about some sort of weapon that shoots liquid plastic that “flash-freezes” on contact? They wouldn’t be “dead”, as such, but they would be frozen in place.
A gravity gun and a room full of circular saw blades, of course!
Pic for those who haven’t played Half-Life 2.
If we are talking Final Fantasy type zombies then fire. If you happen to have access to white magic then healing and anti-dead spells (like HRM from FF1). Incidently fire also works against zombies in the Potterverse. Keep in mind that fire is only good if the zombies are at a distance. Against the horde the OP mentioned all fire would gurantee is a more painful death.
Must admit my first thought was chainsaw too. However on reflection I’d automatically rule out any melee weapon. Anyone who has watched a zombie film will be aware that hand to hand usually ends up in hero to zombie mouth.
An elephant gun however; now that is surely a weapon of choice for the discerning zombie hunter. Gratuitous amounts of damage, decent and range sufficient intimidation value to scare off anyone thinking of messing with you.
If restricted to a melee weapon I think I’d go for something with a decent reach. Perhaps a boar hunting spear with a crossbar so they can’t work their way up the spear towards you.
Have to say though do think the suggestion of a flame thrower is cool as well.
Well, since nobody’s said it yet (and because, from the movies I’ve seen, it’s true): Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
I’d hate to be your shoulder after the second shot with one of those.
That being said, a good 12 gauge, modified to fire from the hip.
The Gau 2 B/A Minigun Three rates of fire, 2,000, 4,000, and 6,000 rounds a minute. 7.62mm, for ever tracer you see, usually 9 of it’s friends behind it that you don’t see. And once you have the basic principles down, pretty easy to clear a jam.
My vote is for the USAS-12 Atchisson, but thePancor Jackhammer runs a pretty close second, just for sheer style points.
yeah, but what about reloading? surely if your using up rounds at that rate, it wont be long till you have to reload, allowing mucho time for zombie mouth/man interface. In my dream, heck, lets call it what it was, nightmare, one of my main problems was reloading. And it was Romero zombies i was facing, thank christ not the braindead/return zombies whose fingers and toes still crawl after you. Take off and nuke the site from orbit? Love that idea, but lets keep it ground based, ok? Like I said, ground level, back to the wall, advancing army of the undead… Fuck it, gimme that minigun!!
These O’Bannon zombies sound fucked-up scary. Is it possible to beat them? How did those movies end, dare I ask?
I like the USAS-12. That’s one nasty shotgun.
However, it is kind of hard to get ahold of. I think the best anti-zombie weapon would be a large vehicle. Something like a snowplow, fire engine, big rig, or even a school bus.
Any of the various 5.56mm automatic rifles should be perfectly adequate for the task. They are light, use large capacity magazines, and at typical zombie-fighting range will blow limbs/heads off, especially if one troubles to use civilian hollow point or softpoint ammo rather than military issue FMJ.
My personal choice would be an AR variant of some sort, but an AUG, FAMAS, Galil, etc. would serve just as well. For that matter, one of the 5.45mm AK’s would work, but without the easy resupply of ammo (for Westerners) that the 5.56 offers.