Russian Space Gun

[Ben]

Carried in years past by Cosmonauts. Apparently also had a built-in shovel. So Russian. :)




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDE0dyMp99Q#

[MillCreek]

^^^I have seen that before.  It was part of the land survival kit.  The thought was with the Soyuz capsules landing out in the taiga, with wolves, bears and other large fauna afoot, they needed to have something to deal with the large fauna while waiting for rescue.

Edited to add: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TP-82

http://world.guns.ru/shotgun/rus/tp-2-e.html

http://www.jamesoberg.com/russiangun_tec.html

[dogmush]

Carried in years past by Cosmonauts. Apparently also had a built-in shovel. So Russian. :)

Yep.  Nothing says "Russian" like tucking the blade of your machete tight to your shoulder before touching off the shotgun attached to the other end of it.  at a bear.  Americans put recoil pads on their guns, Russians put blades.

I can hear the trainer now.  "Do not worry, comrade.  It has a worker produced canvas covering.  It be fine, shoot bear now."

[Balog]

Yep.  Nothing says "Russian" like tucking the blade of your machete tight to your shoulder before touching off the shotgun attached to the other end of it.  at a bear.  Americans put recoil pads on their guns, Russians put blades.

I can hear the trainer now.  "Do not worry, comrade.  It has a worker produced canvas covering.  It be fine, shoot bear now."

I am literally laughing out loud at this right now. Well played sir, well played.

[MechAg94]

I thought it might be because they originally parachuted out of the capsule instead of landing in it. 

[Monkeyleg]

The ultimate survival handgun. I wonder if Taurus knows about this?

[AJ Dual]

The ultimate survival handgun. I wonder if Taurus knows about this?

IIRC nominal bore diameter of .32ga is .526 IIRC, which would make it an NFA DD, like the ill fated Taurus 28ga tracker they came out with at SHOT a few years back, and with the machete/stock it would be a SBR/SBS as well.  Plus, with 5.45x39, it would have gotten the cheap N76 classified as AP pistol ammo. (Water under the bridge already though... already happened.)

[White Horseradish]

I thought it might be because they originally parachuted out of the capsule instead of landing in it. 

The story I've heard was that this was precipitated by an incident involving Alexey Leonov and Pavel Belyaev, whose landing capsule went off course and landed in some really out of the way place in the northern Ural, making extraction a problem. It took a while to find them, and they had to ski out of the place, since it was impossible to land anything there. They actually had some bears come around, and the Makarov pistol they had didn't particularly fill them with confidence.

Inclusion of smoothbore barrels was intended to make not just a small game hunting gun, but a more effective signalling device.

[Devonai]

"Shot placement, Pavel!!! Shot place... Oh.  Poor Pavel."