FUCKING HELL! IN OKLAHOMA!?

actually, i kinda laugh when people write off the killing power of antique weapons in the modern era.
Dudes used them to kill eachother for thousands of years. I GUARANTEE you that a sword will fuck someone up in 2017 just as well as it did in 1017

Bow or crossbow would be a considerable step up from any melee weapon.

If I'm limited to melee weapons, a spear would be my first choice. A long arm is superior to any short arm; being able to injure or kill your enemy from outside his reach is incredibly useful. Halberds and poleaxes are more effective against armored opponents or cavalry; their weight and size make them difficult to use in close quarters against someone with a lighter, faster weapon. It's incredibly easy to keep untrained opponents at bay with a spear, but a trained enemy will do all they can to get too close for your weapon to be effective.

After that, an Estwing hatchet would be my second choice. Very versatile, can be used as much more than just a weapon. While axes typically have a short reach, their shape makes them very effective for parrying and body control techniques.

Of course, a knife with about a 5" to 7" blade can be just as lethal as anything else; you just have to get inside your opponent's guard and open them up.

Like knives, swords are more of a sidearm or status symbol than a weapon. However, given the options, I'd have no qualms with picking up a Cold Steel Cutlass. It just wouldn't be the first thing I'd reach for.

Blunt weapons are, of course, still effective. Also the easiest to improvise.

My Brother has had a tradition going back several years where one of my Christmas gifts is some sort of large bladed weapon of some sort or another. This year it was a Colombian Survival Super Spear. The removable spear blade is humongous and has a nice sheath and a giant steel spike attaches to the other end of the shaft. Usually I wouldn't be into a "gimmick" like this, but the quality is quite decent.

Roman doctrine also requires a big ass shield to bash a guy with while the man on your left stabbed him.

Who wants to carry a big ass shield and another man?

Bought one for a friend as a gift.  Cold Steel screwed the pooch on this one.  It's a foot or more shorter then the one in Last of the Mohicans.

Spear and a short sword to fall back on if you lose the spear. Just like the Romans. 

The bigger the weapon the slower it deploys parries etc.. Alone,  You don't want a halbeard unless you have something protective behind you. Against multiple foes you want a longer double edged sword and a shield. 

 late period as in so late it was NEVER used, a fantasy weapon that saw no action during WW1 try stabbing an animal carcass at full gallop and retaining the sword sometime.

Jim Carrey's choice to brain thee.

I will see your katanas and raise you one sword breaker.
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This guy has the right idea.
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Plenty of shields to be had in a moments notice. Paired with a lighter weight machete and your in business on the cheap and highly effective.

Then when all the bullets have run out, which is as unlikely as any of this topic happening.
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With proper training, I'm going to have to go w/the quarterstaff. An expert can ruin your day in any number of ways. Kukri for backup.

I've had my eye on that mace for years.  Something about the rugged simplicity of it appeals to me more than the axes/hammers/flails.  

Eastwing Camp Axe.

I am thinking a wooden bat, or longer solid tree limb with 3in nails driven all the way through so that they are poking through the opposite side.

Naval boarding ax

I grew up with a machete in my hand so that's what I'm most effective with. 

the water dance

sword

It gave Caesar army's enough trouble he commented on the Gauls use of them before an infantry assault

for 20 years I was a Supervisor as a Critical Care Blood Bank Technologist/Hematologist at 3 Trauma Centers in OKC and Tulsa.

I've seen alot of shit involving stuff you never think about till you see it. I'm never shocked at the wounds I've seen from butcher knives, axes, hatches....never doubt a humans ability to go savage.
one of the worst knifings I've ever seen was a mexican cook at a mexican restaurant who went Aztec on his co-workers, totally disembowling 1, trying to cut the heart out of another and trying to cut the neck thru and thru on the third.

when humans go savage.. they go in a way that defies imagination.
I could write a 300 page book on things I've seen done to a human body by accident or design and people lived thru it ( in varying degree's of life) or died.

from my experience working on people.
the Eastwing Camp Axe, big roofing hatchet or big straight claw hammers would be the best modern day war club that the average joe could get his hands on in the next 30 minutes in any large city and they would be beautiful to use.  the cold steel gladius would be one of my picks too. from what I have been able to tell the big straight claw hammers are easier to pull out after the deed is done and it has a vicious wound.

I've worked on dozens of people assaulted with hammers and hatchets.
they are VERY and I cannot over emphasis this, VERY efficient at putting someone down and out with 1 blow and the wounds are just nasty as you would expect with either the blunt force trauma or the blade wound.

I have the 2 War Clubs left in my family.
one was made in the late 1800's and looks more ceremonial,  the other was meant for serious business and is a gunstock club that originally had 2 cutting heads and was taken to WWI with my halfbreed Great Grandfather and came back used and bloodied as were most that were taken overseas with the 36th. my son and I have played around with it and both feel that the Camp Axe, Long handled roofing hatchet or big hammer would be a better instrument of war.

my son has several of the Cold Steel stuff and the Rifleman's Hawk, Trench Hawk and the War Hawk are pretty handy tools.

With my sleep addled brain, I read "What is the supermarket melee weapon"

I thought holy shit where does this guy live???

Being a small woman... I have to ask people to get things off the top shelf at the supermarket (is that why I need a melee weapon?). I think a good hiding place with a katana or kukri back-up. I can think what a badass I am all day long, but in a hand to hand combat situation with a man I don't think I would do well. All my brother had to do was grab the top of my head and I couldn't get at him. Man, that used to piss me off.

Easier to make by several orders of magnitude. You can make a decent spear based on what is in most people's garage, WITH the tools IN that garage.

Therefore, cheaper, you can have dozens.

Reach.

Considerably more penetrating power than a sword even with a skilled wielder.

In cooperation with allies, you use the spears out front, and the atlatl, rock throwers, or bows from the back. (And one guy with a rifle to find the bad guy boss.)

Good points, but how many in this day and age are going to be even halfway proficient with a sword? In untrained hands they are sometimes more deadly to the user than the
intended target.

I own a weapon that was historically easily handled and required little to no training. My Cold Steel Warhammer is no heavier than my 32 oz. framing hammer
with a hell of a lot more reach and much more smashing power. The hammer head is much less likely to stick or lodge in an opponent, also.

Anybody can beat someone up/to death with a club/bat/Warhammer/mace........ever see little kids go to town on a piñata? Nobody has taught them shit. it's natural.

I wish I knew how to wield a sword, but my peasant roots fight it.

You are absolutely right with your post, but so am I with mine.

Cats, AS nunchucks

With some armored gloves



And this

I always kicked ass with a tachi playing bushido blade in middle school.

Tachi is the longer big brother of the katana.

my son has a War Hammer and its a beast

Forest bill.

Swedish M1685 Rapier. It's been used to kill Papists, Turks, Slavs, Danes and many more. It's proven.

When I click on the highlighted word, I get sent to Brownell's gunsmith hammer page.  ok!

that top hammer would rival anything ever made as a hand held swinging instrument.
both sides of the head are lethal.

Dis.

I'm sure somebody mentioned this already, but a wrecking bar will fuck people up pronto.

Bearing in mind you have to CARRY the damn thing around, all the time, and at some point you're going to get incredibly irritated when your long(ish) sword (or spear) gets hung up for the hundredth time when you turn to see what's sneaking up behind you...

AND, as it adds a good deal of weight to your kit (double and triple for a mace/morningstar-type weapon), it better be able to serve a multitude of roles. Chopping firewood, cleaning fish and game, clearing a path through the heavy brambles your scared ass is going to spend most of your time hiding in... (looking at you, "Rousey would kick my ass" end-of-world warriors).

AND, it needs to be sheathed, or you're going to find out quickly that Emergency Care is no longer open in post-apocalyptic America after you slide down a wet bank with a bladed/pointy/heavy metal implement that punctures your lung or smashes your kneecap...

Best answer: $20 hardware store Gerber (or reasonable facsimile) 18" to 24" machete. Long, fairly curved blade with stabbing tip on the strong hand swing, fully saw-toothed thick edge on the backhand, or parry. Fully enclosed in a 6 oz nylon sheath with velcro'd retention strap. Indestructible handle with wrist loop...

Simples....

There are many machetes like it, but this one is not mine.
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Fake...

Wow!
Definitely wouldn't want to square off with him in our little melee scenario.

Given your scenario, I'm still going SPAZ.  Yes it sucks, but it does fit the theme and there will never by a shot shell shortage.

Indeed... but by the time they get much reach they tend to get crazy heavy.

One of those titanium ones would be cool.  

Is there a good, modern version of the Shaka Zulu short sword? That would seem like an ideal, upclose, stabbing weapon.

Zombie Tools Deuce II

I had a book one time that showed how many different weapons could defeat a sword. One of those "weapons" was a Chinese fans.

Holy shi'ite, dude, you folks in Okieland really know how to party.

Yanno, a good wrecking bar has always been my fave blunt object.

This is not a bad choice.  A machete will fuck things up, bigtime.

Did B or C survive?

With armor, yes.  Without armor, sword and shield.  

Think of the pole arm like a rifle, and the sword like a pistol.

If you know there's gonna be a fight, bring your pole arm, and your friends who have pole arms, and bring shields, and use formations.  But people didn't and/or wouldn't carry around a spear all the time.  A sword is worn item and is manageable to have at all times.


So to me, the superior weapon is the one you have on you when you need it.  How many of us conceal carry a rifle?  Why not, it is the superior weapon after all.