The Guns of The Walking Dead: Every Weapon Identified

Eleven seasons is a long time to keep a gun interesting. What The Walking Dead did well, better than most action shows, is treat ammunition as finite. Guns run dry. People hand them over at checkpoints. A six-shot revolver is a liability and the show knows it.

Here’s what the main characters actually carried across the run, and why Rick’s choice of sidearm is a character decision rather than a sensible one.

Rick Grimes’ Colt Python

Rick carries a six-inch Colt Python in .357 Magnum, and the show establishes in the very first episode that it was his service weapon as a King County Sheriff’s deputy before the outbreak. He gets it back by clearing out the station armoury, then takes it into Atlanta.

The reason that matters is that a Python is a terrible apocalypse gun and a perfect Rick Grimes gun. Six rounds, slow to reload, chambered for a cartridge that isn’t lying around every abandoned house. He keeps it because it’s the last piece of the job that used to define him.

The show is unusually honest about the downside. In “18 Miles Out” he runs the Python dry and has to take two Glocks off a pair of infected deputies. He empties all six into the Terminus hunters in “Four Walls and a Roof.” He hands it to Andrea at the end of season three, surrenders it at the Alexandria gate in “Remember,” and gets it back the moment they let him outside the walls again. He even leaves it buried in a bag at the end of season four.

Colt brought the Python back and it’s genuinely excellent. We tested it in the Colt Python review, and it features in our best revolvers guide.

Daryl Dixon’s crossbows

Daryl’s crossbow is the smartest weapon choice in the series and it isn’t close.

He starts with a Horton Scout HD 125, introduced in “Tell It to the Frogs” when he’s hunting deer with it rather than fighting anything. From season five he moves to a Stryker StrykeZone 380, which Carol recovers for him from the Terminus storage room in “No Sanctuary.”

The logic is sound. Noise draws herds, and a crossbow is near-silent with recoverable ammunition. It’s the one weapon in the show that gets more practical as supplies run down, which is why he still has it after the six-year time jump in season nine. He finally gives it up in season eleven, when the Commonwealth disarms everyone arriving in Alexandria.

The Glock 19

Glocks are the background radiation of this show. They come off dead deputies, out of armouries, off Saviors. Rick picks up two in season two when the Python runs out. Daryl disarms a Savior and ends up running a Glock 19. It’s the right call for a series set in Georgia, because in practice that’s what would be lying around.

Shotguns

The Remington 870 Wingmaster comes out of the gun bag in “Vatos,” first used by Daryl against Guillermo’s gang and then to hold off walkers at the camp. Mossberg pumps run through the whole series. A shotgun in this show is a loud, last-resort decision, and the writing generally respects that.

See our best pump-action shotguns guide for what’s worth buying now.

The Smith & Wesson M&P15

Once the group starts fortifying places, ARs appear. Before the attack on the prison in “Too Far Gone,” Daryl pulls an M&P15 carbine out of the weapons containers and hands it to Maggie, who uses it in the firefight. From the prison onwards the show’s firepower scales up considerably, and the M&P15 is the platform it leans on.

Bolt guns and the rest

Remington 700s handle the long-range work. Rick picks up a Type 56 at one point, which Daryl then uses chasing officers from the hospital in “Crossed.” Smith & Wesson Model 10s and Model 15s turn up in the hands of the Vatos gang in season one. There’s an FN FAL in the Savior era. Negan and his wife Lucille are seen with a Colt in the “Here’s Negan” flashback, which is a nice touch given what that name comes to mean later.

Frequently asked questions

What gun does Rick Grimes use?

A six-inch Colt Python in .357 Magnum, established as his King County Sheriff’s Department service weapon from before the outbreak.

What crossbow does Daryl Dixon use?

A Horton Scout HD 125 from season one, then a Stryker StrykeZone 380 from season five onwards.

Is a Colt Python a realistic apocalypse gun?

Not really, and the show acknowledges it. Six rounds, a slow reload and a cartridge that isn’t common in ordinary homes. Rick keeps it for what it represents rather than what it does.

Does Rick ever lose the Python?

Several times. He gives it to Andrea at the end of season three, leaves it buried in a bag in season four, and surrenders it at the Alexandria gate in season five before getting it back.

Keep exploring

Part of our guns of TV legends series. If revolvers are the draw, try best .44 Magnum revolvers or best revolvers for concealed carry. For screen guns generally, see video game guns vs real life.