Nambu Type 14 Failure to Feed

Here's what I got going on. Type 14 Nambu fails to feed. All parts and mag appear original with the exception of a known reproduction safety.

The pistol fails to feed after firing. Upon visual inspection the bolt can be seen stopped on top of the round at the top of the magazine (it does not strip the next round off the top of the mag but winds up on top of the round).

A friend has a Type 14 that does function correctly. My magazine works fine in his pistol. We swapped the safety and springs from his gun to mine with no improvement. It is unknown if his springs are original.

We swapped the safety because his original safety appears to be milled slightly as if to prevent it from interfering with the feed ramp.

Can the issue be related to the springs? Could the bolt be out running the magazine? I have ordered a set of heavy duty springs but wonder if there are any other ideas or advice?

Unless the magazine is sitting too low to feed, then I'd have to guess its either mag or recoil springs as suspect.

Does it pick up the next round when cycled by hand? When I first started loading for my Type 14, my loads were too light and the slide wouldn't go back far enough to reliably pick up the next round, somewhat like you describe. I increased the load but maybe a somewhat lighter recoil spring would have also worked. Neat pistols, I have always liked the unusual sight picture. Regards. Tom

It does pick up the next round when I cycle by hand, and will cycle through the magazine if cycled by hand. Today I received a set of extra power springs (kind of a shot in the dark thing, but they are pretty inexpensive) and I hope to try them out this weekend. I'll post the results. My bolt also seems slightly "gritty" when I operate it. I've lubricated it well, but it is not as smooth as my buddies. I'm going to also try to polish all of the mating components to see if it will improve.

The trigger is very smooth - I'm really looking forward to getting it reliable. The sight picture definitely isn't modern!

It does seem to hit relatively hard. I read reports complaining about it being a fairly anemic round. Of course, I'll I've done is shoot a little steel from 12 yards, but it seemed to hit about as hard as a 9mm. Not scientific, just a basic impression...

If your new springs do not seem to be working then it's most likely the ammo is too weak to function properly.