Out of curiosity, how do they shoot in your experience? I’ve never shot but have friends and family in the armed forces who’ve I’ve spoken about this to and I don’t doubt the military could win against a horde assuming they’re regular walking dead zombies and not left 4 dead ones. You don’t have to have perfect aim when you can unload at height level into a crowd.
Also, tanks.
Most people in the military do a basic qualification that is pretty easy to pass (23/49 targets, at ranges from 25 to 300m); these aren’t head shots, these are just on the target. Once you’ve done that, and graduated from basic, depending on your specialty, you may rarely touch a rifle. Lots of former military people think that they’re good, just because they managed a single qualification, and that they know a lot about guns, but it’s often just fudd-lore. Spec ops guys and Marines tend to be more proficient overall, because they spend more time practicing. (TBH, a lot of the spec ops are very mediocre as far as competitive shooting goes, but they have a lot of other skills that are relevant to the military, and tend to refuse to give up.) Cops are often even worse; their qualifications are at short distances, with very lenient time standards.
Bear in mind that the kill-to-bullet ratio in Afghanistan was about 1:300,000; most shooting in the modern military is suppressive, rather than directed at a specific target.
Compare that to someone that’s a USPSA B class shooter, or someone that regularly shoots PCSL 2 gun matches; they will tend to outshoot a lot of retired military, because they tend to practice, and practice on a shot timer, a lot.
I’m in the US military. The fact that qualifying on an M4 is 23 out of 40 tells you a lot. (Although my unit’s average is closer to 30ish)
Additionally, a very little amount of the military is combat arms roughly 15%. The other 85% supports the warfighter. I’m part of the 85%
This is why the US military is so logistically and maintenance heavy because we all support the 15%.
However shrapnel will cause a lot of damage and hopefully take out the brain with enough luck. The brain could still be alive without a body to support it.
Also depends on what kind of zombies we’re talking about. If it’s a zombie that still relies on oxygenated blood, then conventional tactics will still apply. However if the zombie only needs non-degraded muscles to keep moving, then it’ll take a while for tactics to change.