Georgia Fiero Club Forum

General Discussion and Announcements => General Discussion => Topic started by: TopNotch on August 26, 2015, 03:34:28 pm

Title: The strange Russian "Space Gun"
Post by: TopNotch on August 26, 2015, 03:34:28 pm

In 1965, two Russian cosmonauts returning from orbit went off course, and landed in a remote forest in Siberia, in the dead of Winter. All they had to protect themselves from Siberian wolves and other predators was a small pistol. Fortunately, rescuers got to them two days later, and they were fine. But that mishap made clear the need for a special weapon to be included in the survival gear of space flights. The gun designed for this purpose was the tp-82 "space gun".

The gun had a removable buttstock, which was a machete covered with a canvas sheath. This machete could be removed and used to hack ones way through brush. The gun had three barrels -- two smooth bore shotgun barrels on top, and a rifled barrel under them. The shotgun barrels were for protection against predators, and could also be used to fire flares. The rifled barrel was for killing game for food. Special ammunition was developed for the gun, which could withstand the vacuum of space, and extremes of temperature in either direction. The gun was included in the survival gear of all Russian space flights from 1982 until 2006, when the special ammunition ran out (and they didn't make any more). They have packed a conventional semi-automatic pistol since then (along with a machete and flare gun).

This tp-82 is in a museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

This tp-82, without buttstock, is in a museum in Moscow.