Necropocalypse & Ammo

So you are planning to survive the necropocalypse, huh? Do you have enough ammo? Are you tough enough to carry it? If you want to keep your thoughts from being food for zombies, here is some food for thought:

Ultimately, the game plan for anyone in the zombie apocalypse is pretty simple: Keep from joining the undead. So when it comes to planning the ammo in your field pack, there are a few main considerations that must be weighed when loading up your zombie backpack…

1. Weight - you need to make sure that you are not wearing yourself out carrying huge loads of ammo that may wear you out faster than you can shoot it- making your cadaver a looter’s ammo cache. (Cause we know the only use a zombie has for a bullet is through its frontal lobe, and that can’t happen if you’re too heavy to run away to safety.

2. Quantity - On the other hand, you want to make sure that you have enough ammunition so that you don’t make the classic ‘last man standing’ move that is so popular in Hollywood zombie movies.

3. Quality - Lastly, you want to make sure that you have the firepower to stop any large game or cleanly remove the medulla oblongata of any walking dead that may be thinking of inviting you for dinner.

I have compiled a small list of ammunition that you are most likely to use and encounter in your struggle for survival, so here is a simple table of rounds per weight ranging from lightest to heaviest with a few observations to help you on your way to better packing:

138rds/lb 22LR – lightest
38.25 rd/lb .223
38.25 rd/lb 9mm
28rds/lb 7.62×39
28 rds/lb .40 S&W
21rds/lb 45ACP
21 rds/lb .308
11 rd/lb 12 Ga OO –heaviest

Here are some interesting observations: You may have noticed that each rifle cartridge generally had a corresponding weight in a pistol cartridge. So according to this, .223 and 9mm may be the best value in what is considered combat loads for weight/round count.

As you will also notice, the larger shells are not taking you as far, with 12 Ga buckshot being your least weight-effective round with lethal ability. More on that later. So here is where the hard questions start coming in. How much weight can you realistically carry, or should carry in your time of need?

To answer for that, keep in mind that most soldiers in field operations in Iraq carry 6 loaded mags into combat. That is 180rds of 5.56, and approximately 4.5lbs. Less than you thought? Well, you also need to keep in mind that they are carrying at minimum 40lbs of other gear with them including food and water, and that you likely will be too- so while carrying more than 10lbs of ammo with you at any given time is not impossible, it may reduce your ability to outrun a horde of hungry brain-eaters.

Make sure that you choose wisely in your decisions on how much of what ammo to carry, and hopefully we will see you on the other side of the Necropocalypse. Maybe? Maybe not?