More Nambu Type 14, 8 X 22mm pictures

[Boonie Stomper]

Mistergreen's recent post of his excellent Nambu T14 & leather holster prompted me to drag out some old pictures from pre-digital 35mm film days.

This Nambu has the "tropical" holster, which is in great shape, but stinks like old rubber. No close-ups yet. The group photo includes stuff that I found while "boonie-stomping" in the jungle. The bayonet was found in the historic Bataan region. The 12.7mm round was from a belt found in a wrecked Japanese plane in the Nueva Viscaya mountains.

The 6.5 & 7.7 Arisaka rounds were found on a mountain near my high school. In the same area we found US .30'06, .30 carbine, .50 cal, & 81mm mortar fins. Must have been quite a firefight there.

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[browningautorifle]

Must have been quite a firefight there.

Can you put a map dot to that? All this stuff is great, way better than buying a collector cartridge at a gun show. The 12.7 is seldom seen.

[Boonie Stomper]

browningautorifle--if you can get a map of Luzon island, Philippines, then find the capital city, Manila. Go east 21 kms and there is Antipolo, up in the mountains. Gen. Yamashita divided his defence into 3 main groups, the 2nd largest (80,000) was the SHIMBU group and they defended the mountains east of Manila. In early March, 1945, the US 1st Cavalry Div. began an attack into these hills, which contained many cave defenses.

As a young lad, my school was in the middle of this area. My nerd-friends and I were more interested in combing these hills for relics, than sports & girls. Occasionally I brought home live ordnance which my parents would not let me keep, but they let me collect a lot of stuff.
There were many Japanese caves & trenches to be explored. We had no metal detectors--everything that we found was on/ or close to the surface.

We found many US 81 mm mortar fins (and some live). The images are of the steel ones, but there were also multi-finned aluminum fin assemblies. The entire bomb (minus detonator) was found on Crorregidor Is.

[browningautorifle]

I'd have been with you looking. The mortar fins are typical of HE that detonates, then the tailfins seemed to keep going and embed themselves right at the point of detonation. We found lots on the live fire areas in days past.

[Bruce McAskill]

Mark, Just where did you find such a pristine Nambu? Are the holster straps also rubberized canvas like the holster or are they leather? The holster seems to be complete with a cleaning rod. Did it also have the spare firing pin in it? Were the magazines matching number wise to the pistol? Just wondering as it's a close match to mine that came from Saipan.

[Boonie Stomper]

Bruce, the T14 really found me. A college friend gave it to me & I wish that I knew more history on it. My friend's dad was a taxidermist in No. Idaho, and a customer paid his bill with the Nambu.

The shoulder strap is leather & there was no spare firing pin. The 2 magazines are both "spares" (have the punch dot above number), one matches my T14, and the other is numbered "481". The ammo is not original. Long ago some guy made 8 mm ammo out of .38 spcl cases & the Nambu was my only firearm, so I have fired it and used to keep it loaded.

It would be really cool if I could find the guy with my "304" numbered mag and he needed his "481" spare mag. My s/n is 63304 & the DOM is 18.1 (Jan, 1943). Close to your's?

That's great that you know that your's came from Saipan. Do you have pictures of it & what accessories does it have?

[Bruce McAskill]

It was brought back by a 2nd Lt. He stayed in the Marines and finally retired as a Col. He had an extensive collect and finally was sell it all off. I bought the Nambu from him. He even had the officers name. A Lt. Namagucci or Yamagucci. Has the cleaning rod, spare firing pin, one matching magazine and the second one doesn't match. But when I first got it I took out the magazine and it was loaded with original ammo. He said that it was just as he got it and he never unload the magazine. I have shot mine and have found it to be very accurate pistol. Perfect bore and I wonder if it had ever been fired before I got it. I know he never shot it just put it away when he got home. The rubberized canvas straps are fraying which I understand is normal with age. 17.10 is the date on it so October 1942. Made at Nagoya Kokubunji 2nd run and inspected at Kokura.