"TP-82 Cosmonaut Survival Pistol: Russia's Space Gun" Topic

"Space, the final frontier. It's full of unknown and exotic dangers like black holes, cosmic rays and space bears. I mean, not really on the space bears thing, but that doesn't mean the Russians weren't ready for them, just in case. You never know when the local space fauna might get uppity.

Okay, maybe only in pulp sci-fi, but still, the Russians did indeed bring weapons to space for fairly practical reasons. And one of the more unusual ones was the TP-82 Cosmonaut Survival Pistol.

When we look at the space race, the so-called Cold War, and the history of the U.S. and Russian relations, it's easy to get conspiratorial, even in orbit. Were the Russians planning to fight America in space? No, not at all (or at least, not with pistols). It's easy to forget that cosmonauts and astronauts are mostly scientists, not bloodthirsty warfighters. But the cosmonaut job was plenty dangerous, and their TP-82 wasn't designed for use in space, but rather on earth after they got back…"

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Armand

Quite like the look of that pistol. Reminds me of Mal's weapon from Firefly, except for the axe/chisel/knife thing.

Our version was the Armalite, now Henry, .22LR survival rifle. All the mechanism plus ammo fit into the waterproof stock, which floats!

Triple barrelled weapons are my absolute favourite. This is my kind of pistol.

A double barrelled shotgun arrangement, with a single rifle barrel between and underneath. Quite a versatile survival gun. Apparently, flares were available for the shotgun barrels – you can't beat incendiary rounds – "Take that 007!", LOL.

(smile)

Armand

My Crosman P1377 resembles that thing.

Very "Star Wars" …

Ha!…

Armand