Off-Topic Discussions

Yes noise would be an issue. With a pistol or rifle each shot would be heard by every zombie withing sound range who would come investigate the sound. A bow weapon would not draw their attention.

As to the second part where I made a stupid mistake and found myself surrounded I wouldn't even attempt to try to fight them all off with my bow. I would pull out my melee weapon or use another tool. (unless for some reason this is all set up in a hypothetical situation where I was stupid enough to find myself out fighting zombies with only a missile weapon. which wouldn't happen)

Try reading the zombie survival guide it gives a detailed list of weapons and why and why not they'd be useful against the walking undead.

so what does it say on the matter?

Had to vote Compound Bow, since none of the rest ARE civilian legal in the UK, yeah when the zombies come the brits are boned. :P on the other hand we done have much gun crime

Also you left out anything bladed, which could have made a good category simply as Bladed weaponary (i.e. Axe, Sword, Machette, Knife..)

Shotgun for sure! It would impact more than one zombie. Plus I wanna blow their brains out.

Depends if we mean freshly animated dead or festering corpse. If the latter, you'd likely be able to do that with a fist. :P

I opted for the shotgun(Pump action)for obvious reasons. First one of the most common firearms around the globe so ammo wont be a problem, second all zombies will attack in close courtiers -where this weapon is most useful- finally, pumb-action is cool.

Considering the U.K. has bass-ackwards gun control laws and enacting them in the area specific to this thread (At least I thought I said "Assume you're in America" in some form in the OP...) would give criminals free reign over Civilians and increase the murder and violent crime rate in addition to brazen robberies, muggings, and burglaries, let's assume that you chose the compound bow simply because of silence and recoverable ammunition, mmkay =P

And personally any weapon here can fit a suppressor if you can find the proper type. Pistol suppressors are the most common, but marksman rifles are close, followed by Submachine Guns and Machine Pistols, with the most rare being shotgun suppressors (And yes, they work very well, considering the spread is very tight by default on every shotgun out there).

Granted Suppressors don't completely "Silence" a weapon, they "Suppress" the firing sound and muzzle flash, but it definitely helps keep the zombies down the block from you hearing and coming for a snack, thusly they're excellent for downing a small mob quickly then moving on with a little peace to reload and such.

Also, I think a VERY good upcoming indie game can represent zombie survival well. It's called Dead State, I think LM had it in one of his blogs a while ago. It's an RPG focusing on the Human Survival Instinct rather than "OMG ZOMBIE BLOW IT UP NAO! FRANCIS, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE POINTING THAT THING LIKE OW I TAKE 1HP DAMAGE PER SHOT IN THIS DIFFICULTY MODE BUT I STILL CRY LIKE A LITTLE WEENIE!".

Two difficulty modes too. Normal, where your character can't be infected, never gets hungry, and Hard mode, where you can be infected by zombie bites just like your fellow survivors can, die from it if you don't keep yourself hopped up on antibiotics, and you require food all the same as the rest of the survivors.

Looks EPIC, and I hope that despite it being a (hopefully) free indie game that CH makes a trainer for it when it comes out some time in 2011 (As they said it's "not" coming 2010).