Comments on: Pros and Cons of Using a Bow in Zombie Defense

By: Scav Dingo

Scav Dingo — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:08:09 +0000

..i agree with the multitude comments for the bow to be primarily a hunting tool, as McLuvin mentioned hunting quietly has great advantages as apposed to the loud zombi attracting firearms..
..if your forced to “craft” something in the wild, i’d go with Instruisto and stay bash and slash at that point, or take the atlatl or spear path; building a handmade bow is highly potential fail, practicality is acquiring a machined compound bow engineered properly..

..one formidable idea is Sean’s using the bow to light zombi on fire from a distance; being quiet and having arching capabilities positions the archer relatively in a low-visible location and retains stealth, essentially fire burning anything will eventually destroy whatever object its burning.. ..humans/zombi will burn, depending on variables with use on groups, this has the potential for multiple kills per single flame arrow.. (obviously there are inherent danger of this tactic, but this is in the interest of the archer being in a secure position inaccessible to zombi and/or retaining stealth being in an unknown position of the zombi, and of course available time for the zombi to eventually burn down)

By: 3-15 INF

3-15 INF — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:34:41 +0000

yeah i think of a bow as more of a hunting weapon i would use to bag deer or rabbits for food rather than a combat weapon. Save the live rounds for self defense. Where bow making and production could be bennificial though, is is in the construction of traps. You can make alot of crossbow type traps that skewer zeds made out of brush found in the woods. May not be the most effective compared to the high-tech weapons everyone listed, but it’s free and quiet. How many you can set up is only limited by your time and imagination.

By: Zombiekiller

Zombiekiller — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:30:21 +0000

i would like to tell you there is a book i read once that was not about zombies but when i read this i got a idea for the bow thing. you see they had no archers they nedded archers so what they did was teach them angles to hit diffrnt ranges so if u have a fence or wall all u have to do is get alot of archers and teach them the angles and you can use wood for this one becuse they have less force per shot

By: KillerB

KillerB — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:49:25 +0000

OK if it is the only thing around that can hurl a projectile then fine I guess that it would work. BUT……………Those pesky buly arrows. What do you do with them. You have to consider anything fired in any kind of combat to be gone. For small groups of Zombies then a bow would be great. Shoot them and then go and get your arrow. Just make sure not to get any blood on you. But for multiple targets or holding of Zed in a mall then hell no. I am guessing that someone good with a bow might be able to get of 4-8 shots a minute MABEY. I hunt with a bow and could possibly get off 4 shots in a minute MABY. But I do not train for COMBAT with the thing so it is hard to say. And yes dude a bow is as silent as ANY supressed gun. Even a sling shot makes a lot of noise.

By: fred

fred — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:24:22 +0000

i own a compound bow and it only took me a few day to be good. i could hit a pop can at
forty yards by the end of the week. an upside is that arrows are reusable. the downside
is that carrying a dozen arrows takes up more space than carrying a thousand .22
rounds. also bows ARE NOT silent. compared to a .22 or larger gun yes but it still
makes about the same amount of noise as a pellet or paintball gun which can give you
away.

By: nedeeboy

nedeeboy — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:00:28 +0000

I agree that it would take a liftime of training to become deadly with a bow but it will
only take a couple a weeks to become compitant. The problem to me would be
reloading quickly.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:55:48 +0000

Marius:

Usually better to have a crap bow than nothing at all but if you’ve managed to evade detection from zombies long enough to whittle an entire bow it’s definitely a hunting weapon (or the most desperate of last stands). You mainly need to think about longbows and compound bows if you’re attacking armoured targets that are far away, shooting game animals in a forest won’t be a huge problem as long as you remember to sharpen your arrows.

Zombie defence is the opposite because a bow which can’t kill zombies will just slow you down as you move. I think using a poor bow on a zombie is not much different from poking it with a stick. Instead you need a powerful strike which goes straight through the hard, bony skull and destroys the brain to stop the zombie turning around and coming after you. The only thing worse than an undead zombie is one that you’ve alerted and that is the difficulty with using bows on zombies, you need to kill with headshots and not just wound and punching through bone at safe(ish) distances simply requires a substantially more powerful weapon than a rough and ready unseasoned bow.

As a hunting weapon for game or if you find/manage to find the time and expertise to make a bow which is capable of punching through skulls though then absolutely go ahead, both’ll probably save your life many times over.

By: Sevandor

Sevandor — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:45:15 +0000

few things…i’m an archer….what about modern crossbows? also you can learn th bacics in a 6 day course, and be proficient in 12-14 days……also ther is the pro of replacable ammo, and a hunting bow needs only have 40 lb of pull to it….that is enought to kill a bear in one shot with a well aimed arrow……20lb is practacally wightless to the average full grown adult…. 40 lb, easily do able…also little recoil…. and the strength needed to survive in an apocalypse would easily be enought to use a bow….

By: Kurt

Kurt — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:44:46 +0000

I believe you are selling crossbows short. You can volley fire crossbows, using the three rank drill, often seen in movies of the British armies fighting in colonial wars, such as Zulu. In fact there is some evidence that a similar type of drill was used medievally. It would take some time to work out, but is possible.

The biggest factor in them is making them as strong as possible, yet being able to cock them by hand. You are not using them against armor, so they don’t need to be so powerful as to require a crank. If you have the time and materials, you could put a foot loop on the end and use a cocking hook attached to a belt ( I don’t know the proper names of these two items). It would still be pretty easy to cock, allow for a more powerful bow, and still allow for a closed rank drill.

Another advantage is you can use a heavier bolt than an arrow.

I have made crossbows in the past using the thick part of scrap pallets as the stock. We cut the bows out of a steel plate, not iron. You need it to spring and not bend. I have heard of people using part from cars to make the bow part. Trickiest part is the trigger. We used a iron bar that we put a dog leg to release a wooden swivel. You have to bore a hole in the stock for a trigger.

For the bow, you can also mount a regular bow onto a stock, but I would only do that with a basic, inexpensive bow. If you had a really good, high quality bow, keep it and learn to use it or give to trade to some one who does know how to shoot it.

I actually have several crossbow/sling shot combinations. They where commercially made a few years ago, for launching tennis balls. Work very well for rocks and other projectiles also. Don’t know if they still make them.

By: sean

sean — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:14:40 +0000

firstly there is a large difference between crossbows and conventioal bows as well as differences between composite or recurve styles of modern long or short bows,but if you practice fairly frequently it becomes able to shoot accurately and fairly precise consistently
but there are definate pluses and minuses opposed to guns
-but you can reuse your arrows instantly as opposed to requiring a reloader
-also potentially you can just carve your owns arrows it you are a decent carpenter
-and you could shoot flaming arrows,able to either set the walking dead on fire,or to simply start fires silently at a distance.

but some con’s would be
-unless you are proficient it would take a long time to reload
-unless you had sizable distance and time it would not be feasible to use without being mauled and probably eaten alive

in short it would be an alright weapon just not for close combat
or all situations

-sean-