Starting in 1986 Russian Cosmonauts began to carry a special gun into space. These guns were not meant to fight off space aliens and any other kind of intergalactic threat, but were meant as an emergency survival weapon. Often Russian missions involved landing in remote areas of Siberia. Pickup and recovery could take a while, especially if they happened to be off course. In addition if they had to abandon a space ship or station and their escape pod may land in the middle of the wilderness on some far off continent. Thus they were issued a special survival guns to fend off predators or hunt for food.

The TP-82 was a simple three barreled break open firearm that sported two calibers. The upper two barrels were smoothbore and chambered for a special 12.5x70mm (40 gauge) shot shell ideal for hunting small game. The bottom third barrel was rifled and chambered for 5.45x39mm rifle cartridge which was good for small game but also could be used for larger animals in a pinch. Included with the gun was a detachable buttstock which also doubled as a sheathed machete.

The TP-82 was issued to Soviet and Russian Cosmonauts from 1982 up to 2006. In 2007 the Russian Space Agency’s store of the rare 12.5x70mm shotshell ammunition expired in terms of shelf life. Since then Russian Cosmonauts are issued regular semi automatic pistols with their emergency gear.

(Source: yuri-gagarin.com)

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nice one, gotta love the Russkie mentality, checkered walnut, Schnabel forend, 3 barrel drilling handgun!

compare this to our pilots piece of junk M6 .22 Hornet over .410

Very cool.
Seems over-engineered.