Walking Dead observations

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Ok, so the Walking Dead is now about…mmmm….seven years into the zombie apocalypse and it’s starting to look more and more like an SM Stirling novel. Ammo is virtually non-existent and edged weapons and arrows are the order of the day. Okay, fine. Here’s my question…they have a somewhat-genius in the form of Eugene, who has shown the ability to engineer and science his way out of some pretty tough situations. So, while expecting him to make nitrocellulose-based powders and percussion primers might be a little out of his league, surely he can make black powder and cobble together a flintlock rifle. Right? And even something as simple as a matchlock proves to be beyond his capabilities you’d think black powder for simple explosive devices would be within his capabilities. So…what gives, Eugene?

And, yeah, I binge watched to try and get caught up. Although if I do have to carry around some sort of headchopper in the zombie apocalypse, I’ll probably go with something like this from the local boys down the street at ZombieTools.

27 thoughts on “Walking Dead observations”

  1. Estimated that the America public hold over several billion rounds of ammo. How did the few remaining non-zombies run short on ammo????

    • If there are several billion rounds of ammo, does that mean that 100% of them are available 100% of the time?

  2. With the amount of ammo out there there wouldn’t be a single zombie left undead if it had all been fired off at them… SEVERAL HUNDRED times over. Just speaking for myself, at this point in the continuum if this were an actual event, I’d be hunkered down in a enclosed and triple fenced safe facility (think nuclear weapons storage site or ICBM silo) transporting myself and scrounged goods in an armored vehicle borrowed from a military facility running on cooking oil once the diesel ran out.

    A field of solar panels and wind generators would run things and I’d do most of the work and scrounging at the height of winter when the undead are frozen in place. I’d be raising whatever livestock I could collect as well as dogs to run the perimeter and interference when out. A large veggie plot would also be producing. Drones would be useful to recon the area looking for walkers and I’d figure a way to arm them. Etc Etc.

    I understand that the series is more about how humans will react and behave in apocalyptic circumstances but the premise of rotting flesh holding together (especially 7 years on) enough to tear you apart and masticate you with non existent jaw muscles doesn’t really do it for me. As for human predators, I’d have layered defenses, a holdout citadel, and stakes carrying the craniums of previous “problems” prominently on display… But I’d also always have an escape route and other options… Just in case

    Regards

  3. I enjoy the Walking Dead and Fear as well. I believe that the timeline is more like 10 or 12 years as they jump sometimes between seasons. I also watch the Talking Dead where they discuss episodes. I enjoy coming over to your webpage nearly every day and appreciate your writing and insights.

    • Incorrect.
      Judith was born, assuming normal gestation period, approximately, less than a year into the crisis. By the time Rick ‘dies’ she is about two years old. The time jump at the end of the season said it was six years later. That makes Judith about eight, which means that no more years than that have passed.

      • How old was Carl at the beginning and how old was he when died. On the Talking Dead they said the last jump was 6 years. Judith is definitely older than eight.

        • Carls age is never given, but Judith is a more accurate barometer since she wasnt born when the series started. Assuming that Lori was not carrying on with Shane before Ricks coma, that would mean she got pregnant sometime within the 4-6 weeks Rick was in a coma…at the very beginning of the outbreak. Normal human gestation is approx. nine months, so by the time Judith is born we at the one year mark. By the time Rick dies, Judith appears to be 2-3 years old. Definitely less than four, and no younger than two. Add in a six year timejump at that point and you get eight to ten. Im figuring around eight or nine years old which means, come to think of it, including the gestation period, you’re at age of child + gestation = elapsed time. so eight-to-ten plus a year…Makes Judith somewhere between 8-10 years old, and the zombie apocalypse 9-11 years on.

  4. But if he’s able to cobble together black powder & flintlock that negates all the fakery and drama, where the payday in that. Methinks more peeps should be paying more attention to real life instead of the fakery practiced in hollywierd, state local & federal goobermynts…… All venues make entirely too much money trying to “entertain” me, with limited success.

    • While I’ve enjoyed the series, I’ve begun to think that the characters in the show are only as informed/skilled as the writers are. Blackpowder can be made at home, brass can be reloaded, bullets are surprisingly plentiful (especially in the South), etc, but most CA liberals wouldn’t know that, so the show looks like it was written by Stirling. Who is also a flaming liberal.

  5. Bad, Bad, Commander Zero!! I just bought 2 items, a sword and a knife from Zombie tools. You shouldn’t tempt a weak gun/tool/knife/sword nut with fun sites like this. Now when the Zombies come I won’t need ammo!! Bye the Bye, I do have a black powder rifle .50 cal and I have the recipe for it as well. One of the tricks to not blowing yourself up is mix all the ingredients wet and break down the dried cakes of BP gently, very, very, gently using non sparking materials. Just sayin!!!

  6. Zero

    As the owner of a black powder muzzleloader ( not an in-line, a true 1850 .50 cal Kentucky rifle reproduction ) they are not that quick to reload. The fastest I can do it is just under 50 seconds, and that’s with a bullet starter and lubed patches, pre measured powder charge, etc. so is that a game changer if a walker wave is coming at you? The sword or your demented hatchet device would be quicker to deal with the walkers en masse. On attacking humans that are awful you would need a back up black powder rifle/revolver to keep up continuity of fire.

  7. ZT makes great blades, but they’re pricey. The Rat Bastard is a bit short for zombie chopping time- I personally like the Cold Steel Gross Messer. I’ve had one for years and used it for destructive testing- damn thing will not die.

  8. My friends. Time to think outside the “Box”. Who wants a single shot muzzle loader when you can make a hand grenade Home made black powder is efficient enough for that. For goodness sakes the Chinese figured it out possibly a thousand years ago. The components are not too hard to find. Charcole from the fire pit. Sulfur is readily available at most farm stores in 50 pound sacks. The Saltpeter is a little more problematic. The ladies of Richman Va. collected chamber pots to make high grade saltpeter during the civil war. Where there is a will, there is a way. Leaving an entrance in your compound is a force multiplier. Mine the road! The Sand people have constructed IEDs for years. If the black power is not of a high enough quality, Greek Fire in pipes at the entrance is a possibility. Igniters can be fabricated from old used Bic Lighters or Zippo lighter flints. If their resident Genius has not figured this out, well he needs to read a few books once in a while. This information is only for informational and entertainment. Never attempt this at home. You can put your eye out, kid!
    End of lesson.

    • It is my understanding that the historically correct recipe for Greek fire is unknown. Additionally, setting a zombie on fire to kill it creates a mobile fire hazard that can spread fire to places you don’t want it while the flames take their time killing the zombie.

  10. What bothers me most about the series is how they never leave the woods. They’re supposed to be somewhere near Alexandria, Virginia. A heavily urbanized area. But, they never go into the city. You never even see the city. DC is right there. Go live in the Capitol Building. Or the Watergate. 32 miles from Quantico, 11 miles from Fort Belvoir, 6 miles south of the Pentagon. Military installations all over the place in NoVa and Maryland. The NRA Firearms Museum in Fairfax. And none of this has ever been mentioned. No one looking across the river at the Washington Monument. No military units creating a Green Zone. Jadis and the unknown organization that spirited Rick away in a helicopter is the only thing that even remotely touches on something bigger at work. And that was over quickly.
    The Zombie Apocalypse was mostly over in the first month. There are billions of rounds of ammo waiting to be found. What would have been gone by this time is gasoline. But somehow, Daryl gets to moto. Maybe Eugene has it figured out. What he should have figured out is making bio-diesel. All of those dead vehicles with crankcases full of oil. Not that hard.
    I know I’m preaching to the choir. It just feels good to vent.

    • Given that a large city of millions of people now has a population of millions of dead people, I’d think staying out of formerly large population centers would make good sense.

      We don’t actually know what Daryl’s bike runs on. Good be diesel, couuld bebiofuel, could be gas. I’m guessing motorcycle engines, esp on older dirt bikes, are more tolerant of pukey gas than fuel-injected stuff would be.

  11. Commander:
    I suspect that the reason they don’t show black-powder IED’s is that Democrats and/or Antfa HATE the idea that banning firearms wouldn’t mean that they were safe…
    They have missed the point.
    People wouldn’t regard the show as a how-to manual because the ones who want the information already have it!

    Keep up the good work.

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