America has a new and dangerous quarry species that’s emerged this year: the zombie. Of course, they don’t exist… or do they?
It all starts in the swamps of Louisiana. Last year, a local hunter claimed he found his trailcam smashed. He retrieved the card from it and found this picture. Fake or not, it has helped fuel a craze. For zombie target shooting. It’s not just one company riding this bandwagon – there are loads offering cartridges, knives, chainsaws – chainsaws?
Even brand giant Hornady has brought out a zombie bullet. The clue is it has a green tip. These targets with the weeping jammy goo are selling like hot cakes, and are coming in all shapes and politically incorrect sizes.
“It’s a 5 billion dollar industry between video games and movies, TV shows,” says Bo Oseguera of Zombi Industries. “You know there is a new movie coming out with Brad Pitt and it’s just a growing industry and we are just getting a lot of great feed back, because zombies are such a huge thing you know they’ve got zombie ammunition, zombie fire arms throughout the whole show there’s countless products, people we’re working with want a program with us because if you have the zombie gun you need some zombies to shoot.”
Zombie targets on display at the 2012 ShotShow in Las Vegas
Also protecting the American public from zombie attack are a range of special shotgun cartridges being advertised in this film. They come in a variety of gauges, .410, 20-bore but they are blanks and intended, say the manufacturers, for recreational use. Hmmm… whatever that means.
“This round produces a tremendous amount of noise a huge muzzle flash, theatrical almost in its effect and again it’s recreational,” says Neil Keegstra of Lightfield Ammunition. “It’s not for accuracy where you are putting holes in a target, it’s just for having fun with fire arms, if you do it safely.”
Neil Keegstra of Lightfield Ammunition
So, what if you accidentally mix these cartridges with real cartridges?
“Not recommended by any,” says Keegstra. “This is real bullets, real ammunition, it’s a real threat and it is not intended to shoot at people. If you are going to shoot at a zombie target or something along those lines fine, but all rules of fire arm safety apply. If you’ve got a real gun it’s a real threat so you have to treat it accordingly. So it’s not a recreational force on force type of paint ball load not by any means.”
Oh my God. The question remains: why are American shooters so keen on shooting zombies? Is it because they are human-like targets but don’t come with the shame and guilt people feel when they shoot more ‘human’ human targets?
Americans like their zombies to have a sense of fun
“Some people might say that the reason we chose a zombie is because you are supposed to shoot zombies,” says Oseguera. “If zombies are coming after you, you have got to destroy the attackers or the attack line so that is kind of what we wanted to do. You are not shooting a human target you are shooting a dead target.”
So, here you are: zombie targets – coming to a graveyard near you.
Visit Zombie Industries and Lightfield Ammunition.
