Headshot, Boom!! Headshot, Boom!!!

[Jonathan]

if you knew a headshot was the only thing stopping you from being eaten i reckon you would get to be a good shot pretty damn quick... ""We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training."

[Wyldwraith]

Again, It's absolutely crucial to describe what sort of target you're talking about when making a statement related to difficulty of landing a headshot. If we're talking about Dawn '04 Runners then a headshot would be all but impossible without multiple shooters with automatic weapons wasting a helluva lot of ammo. In such a situation you would be MUCH better off with a 12-gauge, or even two sawed-offs. Your best best under those circumstances would be avoidance/stealth, moving through territory difficult for the less-coordinated/unable to plan runners, and only getting in a shootout as a last resort. If you were forced to try and put runners down you'd be much better off trying to do critical damage to the spinal column or legs than go for the headshot. Now, if we're talking about GAR-shamblers: While not exactly easy, shooting an object the size of a pineapple that's moving at 2-3mph AT BEST, in an extremely predictable and unchanging trajectory that only rarely rises or falls (the occasional stumble) shouldn't be prohibitively difficult. Dragging the issue of people freaking out because they're facing zombies into the issue is sort of disingenuous, because that sort of shock/horror/panic/revulsion can be said to impair ANY task under those conditions. Besides, anyone that cannot find a way to overcome their fear and act decisively in spite of it will be dead by Day 3 of the epidemic at maximum unless they're extremely lucky, or find someone/a group able and willing to protect their useless carcass. So we can assume that when we're talking about a hypothetical shooter taking hypothetical headshots at hypothetical undead cannibal corpses during a hypothetical zombie epidemic that we're talking about individuals who've already found a way to deal with their fear to the extent it's no longer significantly impairing their performance. Everyone else will be dead, it just being a matter of time. Then if we're discussing scoring headshots on Savini zombies...well, believe we've already established that a retarded chimp can do that. Like I said, the debate is shaped by the target in question.

[Publius]

Dragging the issue of people freaking out because they're facing zombies into the issue is sort of disingenuous, because that sort of shock/horror/panic/revulsion can be said to impair ANY task under those conditions. Besides, anyone that cannot find a way to overcome their fear and act decisively in spite of it will be dead by Day 3 of the epidemic at maximum unless they're extremely lucky, or find someone/a group able and willing to protect their useless carcass. So we can assume that when we're talking about a hypothetical shooter taking hypothetical headshots at hypothetical undead cannibal corpses during a hypothetical zombie epidemic that we're talking about individuals who've already found a way to deal with their fear to the extent it's no longer significantly impairing their performance. Everyone else will be dead, it just being a matter of time. True about "individuals who've already found a way to deal with their fear," but part of the question is how many people will make it that point, considering the widespread ability of guns. Those who do not survive will die and those who do not die will survive, granted, but the freaking out issue isn't disingenuous, it's a factor relevant to figuring out what fraction of the population is likely to fall into each category.