In order to feel fear, you have to have a functioning brain.
Zombies are lacking of that...they have no emotion, no fear.
Theoretically, they're drawn by anything that stands out...light,
sound, etc...and well, fire tends to stand out. I have a hunch that
lighting a large fire would only draw hordes of them to your
location.
Secondly, the only way to kill a zombie is to destroy it's brain...and it
would take a long time for fire to actually eat through a zombie enough
to scorch it's brain matter. Electricity might work, if it's a high enough voltage to say...cook the brain. And hey, that just sounds fun!
The Zombie Survival Handbook is my friend.
The M4, in my opinion, would be a somewhat flawed weapon. It would serve it's purpose of course, but having a weapon with rapid fire capability will only hinder you in the long run.
Only a direct headshot will kill a zombie. Semi-auto is the setting of choice for head shots...it'll force you to focus on each bullet, not a stream of bullets, and therefore will conserve precious ammo in the long run. The M-4 can be switched to semi-auto, but it is still built for full auto fire, which may hinder it's accuracy, depending on the model.
http://www.springfield-armory.com/prod- ... aded.shtml
I chose the M1 (M-14) because it's an accurate, semi automatic rifle, that also has a completely wooden stock that could double as a melee weapon. Secondly, it fires the .308 round, which is larger and has more potential knock down power than the M-4/m-16's .223 round, which are significantly less potent. The added power could possibly take a zombie clear off it's feet, even if the hit wasn't a head shot.
Last of all, it and similar rifles are sturdier and easier to maintain. M-16 type rifles have a nasty habit of jamming in the field if they aren't properly cared for and cleaned on a regular basis.
If you're dead set on an automatic for close in combat, I'd highly recomend an AK-47, or one of it's variants. They're extremely reliable and sturdy, and also fire a larger, more powerful round than the m-16 rifles. The problem with AK's, is that they lose accuracy beyond 100 yards. This limits them to more close in combat, which is the only place you'd need an automatic to begin with.
As far as long range shooting is concerned, you can either stick with the M1, many of which can be mounted with a scope or other optics. A bolt action rifle would work very well, and most of them come pre-fitted with scopes, and are remarkably accurate. The type of ammunition is less important for sniping, since you'll have more time to focus on a headshot, which will be lethal regardless of the type of round you're using, perhaps excluding a .22 or other small rounds). .223 or .308 would work decently. Both have more than enough power to penetrate the skull and sufficiently scramble the brain, and they're also very common. You can find them at your local gun store with ease.
Oh, we chose the Save a Lot, because it's a small grocery store, and has less front window space than most larger stores. They would still require constant babysitting, but the abundant stock of supplies makes it worth defending. Also, I believe there's a rear garage type area where you could store a get away/supply run vehicle. We would undoubtedly need to go out and acquire certain supplies...not food, I suppose, but ammunition may pose a problem, depending on how long we're holed up.
Zombie bodies would need to be burned, so we would have to make runs out to the parking lot to take care of that every few days or so, depending on how trigger happy I decide to get on the roof. This would require careful planning, though, since a makeshift funeral pyre will draw more zombies, and you never know just how many are lurking near by. Could be a couple dozen, could be half the town.
Propane tanks would also be useful for crowd control, ala- dawn of the dead. Lob one into a crowd of zombies, either with a rigged explosive, or a carefully placed bullet, and shizzam! You've got yourself a bomb.
Oh, back on the fire-arms issue, you may want to keep a revolver and some matching ammunition handy. Automatics are choice, of course...but if you lose the clip (which may happen in close combat), it's utterly useless, no matter how many rounds you have laying around. A revolver can be reloaded and used over again without a clip, though reloading in the midst of combat isn't something I'd recomend, unless you're used to using a revolver. Shaky hands make loading the cylinder difficult.
Caliber is just a matter of choice. A magnum round could be considered over-kill, as well as huge strain on the shooter...however, a direct hit with a .357 or .44 round is almost guaranteed to take whatever you're shooting off their feet. This may be handy, if you're in a situation where you'd have to use the revolver to begin with.
...sorry, I have a lot of time to think about this.
