Lock'n Loaded - Guns, Ammo, Military and Survival Stuff

[Cabbage Patch]

What is the thing above the flashlight?

It's an Explorer Whistle, Compass, Magnifying Glass! There's even a thermometer on the other side of it. They used to carry these things by the checkout registers at Eddie Bauer stores.

explorer-whistle-exp24.jpg

[gaijinpunk]

I remember those...

[HaveCrowBarWillTravel]

In my truck yes, but there is no way I'll carry that in my standard load, (not even the 18" FatMax, I've handled them on the h/w store and they're too heavy), a standard hexagonal or a flat prybar in 15" - 18" strapped to my pack would do.

9 Pounds isn't much to me, but I can see what you're talking about. I think I'd carry it during foraging runs when you're in such places like apartment buildings.

[reaper239]

i have an M1 carbine (love it) a mossberg maverick 88 (also love it) and a .45 1911 (my baby) that's all i need

[smalls kenobi]

ah!! the Machete

[usmcludwig]

I wish I could afford a Beneli

POOOOOW!

[Devilish Pizza]

I just ask this, because I have no idea about guns (other than from video games), and I'd like to know how accurately they guns are portrayed......
In the show, do they sound the way they do in real life?
Do they really jam as often as real life? (because it seems ridiculously frequent)
Is it actually as easy to aim as the show makes out? (The survivors seem to be able to blow a hole through a zombie's head really easily)
And finally, is Burt's accuracy actually realistic for an expert marksman? (I mean seriously, he shot a shotgun out of Bill's hands, with a DE)

I understand that most of these are used to build tension, or progress the plot. I would just like t know how I would fare against a zombie horde if I managed to get hold of a gun.

[reaper239]

it looks like... jam. rspberry, only one man would dare to give me the raspberry... LONESTAR!!! (BANG)

so in regards to jams, the only jams i remember hearing were on angels gun. here's the thing, the AR15 platform (M16, M4, Mk18, etc) has a horrendous reputation for jamming. this rep was forged in the vietnam war where the jungles dirtied the guns faster than anything else in the world. a dirty M16 will jam all the time, so cleanliness is imperative. they have gotten a lot better in recent years (the last 10 or so) and different recoil designs have different failure rates, but overall, angels M16 (most likely an A3 or A4) is portrayed fairly accurately. the later jams after it's thorough cleaning are indicative of some kind of catostrophic failure more related to a hardware fault than to poor cleaning.

regarding the sound, yes they do sound very similar in real life. in real life the 5.56 (M16 round) is a supersonic round, so if you are standing in front of it when fired you'll catch the sonic boom. it makes you feel funky. but that is really hard (if not impossible) to capture in audio.

soldiers are highly trained for rapid target acquisition and, depending on their job, they drill it alot (exceptions are jobs where they don't get exposed to combat a lot. in the army there are many such jobs, but i am not entirely sure how the nasty guard is structured (or was it reserves?) and i don't know how they run logistics) so the soldiers would be more than capable of acquireing targets rapidly under pressure. they drill that. burt was a marine so he would have had very similar training. on top of that, burt was a competition shooter, but i'll cover that later.

later: so burt was a competition shooter. if i understand his record right, burt was a champion pistol shooter, who could also do trick shooting. for him shooting targets rapidly and with great accuracy is second nature. regarding the shooting of the shotgun; something to remember is that the Desert Eagle fires a .50 calibur round. that's half an inch.that is a bullet that caries a lot of weight and a lot of force, so if it hit the shotgun, there'd be no way to keep hold of it. and people have pulled off harder shots.

there you go, i hope this helps. the show portrays things pretty realisticly (minus the zombies) it may take a bit of liberty in some area but it is the attention to detail and accuracy that keeps me listening (aside from, you know, the really good story)

[nikvoodoo]

Jams might have happened in one other gun: Lizzy's when she gets kidnapped....but that could also be Angel's but we were never told whose gun it was.

[Eitri]

The survivors had rildes to spare so its possible Lizzy got her hands on one.

And now for a gun Lesson!
there are a couple types of jams, but i will cover two of the major and well known ones.
One where the empty shell fails to eject from the chamber (common and easily fixed)
The second is where two bullets try to enter the chamber at once, creating a "double feed" these are hard to fix but not impossible.