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The Walking Dead's Merle Dixon Demonstrated The Finer Points Of Gunfight Tactics

By now news of Merle Dixon's death on the show The Walking Dead has hit the entertainment air waves.

Surely he will be missed.

Lacking, however, in the coverage is a breakdown of just how Merle died: saturated in whiskey, blasting rock and roll, in a totally awesome shoot-out.

It's the shoot-out in particular that has the attention of this post. (Prior to the breakdown though, we should note that Merle literally had a knife-hand — which undoubtedly puts him in a special place for any Marine.)

Okay, here's the breakdown:

Distraction and diversion: Merle uses American rock and roll to attract the attention of several zombies to an old Cadillac. Then driving, and dragging this horde behind him, he ditches his still-rolling vehicle as it enters the enemy position.

Flanking: Merle then dodges into an abandoned building that's off to the flank of the enemy. When the group of bad guys steps up to take out the zombies, Merle is in the perfect place to engage.

One shot, one kill: This is no time to go all Rambo, Merle is outnumbered and outgunned. So instead of wildly shooting at groups of people, he picks a target, lines up the shot, and squeezes the trigger.

Auditory cover: As Merle shoots the baddies, he lines up his rifle reports to coincide with the sounds of the enemy's own gunfire. This way, Merle can drop a fair amount of them before they catch on that they're being picked off.

Now, we all know that in the end, Merle eats it (literally as well, his brother later finds him zombified and chewing on a carcass), but everyone knows that in the Zombie Apocalypse it's not if you die, it's just how many zombies and bad guys you can take before you go.

In that regard, Merle will likely remain top dog for a while.