TP-82: The Gun Cosmonauts Carried On Space Missions

HughPickens.com writes James Simpson has an interesting story about the TP-82 survival pistol that Russian cosmonauts carried into space with them on missions between 1982 and 2006. But calling it a pistol is slightly misleading—the TP-82 was essentially a sawed-off, double-barreled shotgun with a short-barreled rifle added onto it. Having a gun inside a thin-walled spacecraft filled with oxygen sounds crazy, but the Soviets had their reasons. Much of Russia is desolate wilderness. A single mishap during descent could strand cosmonauts in the middle of nowhere. In March 1965, cosmonaut Alexey Leonov landed a mechanically-faulty Voskhod space capsule in the snowy forests of the western Urals 600 miles from his planned landing site. For protection, Leonov had a nine-millimeter pistol. He feared the bears and wolves that prowled the forest—though he never encountered any. But the fear stayed with him. Later in his career, Leonov made sure the Soviet military provided all its cosmonauts with a survival weapon. For the Soviets, the weapon was a case of "better safe than sorry," and from 1986, it was a permanent fixture in the portable survival kits of every Soyuz mission. "Astronauts of all nationalities—including Americans—have trained with the TP-82," writes Simpson. "And still today, before they ride the Soyuz to space, they must complete a Russian survival training course in the Black Sea and the Siberian forest."

Comments

There's a name for this kind of gun

[Zcar]

A gun like this, triple barreled with shotgun and rifle barrels is called a drilling. Most typically they have two shotgun barrels and a rifle barrel, but other combinations are possible, e.g. one shotgun barrel, one larger caliber (e.g. .30-06) rifle barrel, and a small caliber rifle (e.g. .22lr) barrel.

Re:Does not make sense

[Immerman]

Quite so. But as described in the Wikipedia article linked the TP-82 is a triple-barreled weapon featuring two smooth-bore 32-guage shotgun barrels and a rifled barrel for firing 5.45×39mm rounds.

Basically two shotguns plus one rifle all sharing a single stock. Where's the problem?

American version (sorta)

[i.r.id10t]

The American pilot version - cut down bolt action in 22 Hornet. Since it has a barrel less than 16" and an OAL of less than 26" it falls under NFA purview, so there is a tax stamp associated (and several months wait).

http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti...

The other "more common" but still rare is the M6 version which is 22 hornet over a 410 shotgun on a weird skeleton style stock and weirder firing mechanism

http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti...

Re:Sharks!

[ColdWetDog]

Yes, the Apollo capsule carried shark repellant in the survival kit (as well as a .22 cal pistol). Of course, that was in the days prior to lasers. Now they would have to have sunglasses as well.