Update to Japan - Milsurp Knowledge Library

[Badger]

With thanks to riceone, a new addition has been added to the Japan - Milsurp Knowledge Library (click here)

1943 T14 Nambu Pistol (click here)

Regards,
Badger

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Claven2]

What a great looking Nambu! Thanks for sharing it! Do you shoot it ever?

[riceone]

I have shot a Nambu, but not that one. They are very pleasent to shoot with not a lot of recoil. The trigger is real soft with a longer than usual pull. They are said to be very accurate. It is said that the Japanese lapped the bores so well that you don't see corroded bores. I don't know if that is really true, but I have never seen one. riceone.

[tiriaq]

My first handgun was a Type 14 Nambu. It had two numbers on it; 16.10 and 25. So, of course, it was registered as a Model 1925, serial 1610.

[Claven2]

I'd love to handle one in person, but they are rather rare here in Canada, so I've not had the opportunity. Lots of vet bringbacks in the US, so you see them more often down south, but Canada didn't have the same proportionate volume of troops in the pacific theatre

What's next on the Japanese contribution list? Type 99 sniper? Type 44 carbine? Hirohito's personal officer's sword? you seem to have pretty nice stuff, I must say!

[riceone]

16,10 would have been October 1941. According to Honneycutts book the lowest serial number observed in the 16.10 is 99436 and the highest serial number for a 16.9 is 99386. Do you recall what the numbers were up on the slide. riceone

[tiriaq]

Those were the only two numbers. I knew that 16.10 was the date, Oct. '41. It was my understanding that this was the 25th pistol assembled that month. I do not know where the pistol was made; I have no notes or photos. The pistol had replacement grips, and a broken safety when I got it. I was able to obtain a replacement safety. Apart from the safety and grips, the pistol was in fine condition. As Claven2 has pointed out Japanese firearms are not all that common in Canada, apart from the ones imported from China. I recall seeing a Nambu lmg for sale in London Ontario. The right side of the receiver had been pock marked by fragments, and the barrel fins had been grooved by an incoming bullet. It may have been a bring back from Korea. The only Japanese firearm I currently own is a Special Navy Rifle. I can't imagine how it got to Canada. At the last Switzer's auction in Bancroft, a Type 94 pistol sold for about $75. I was unable to attend this auction.

[riceone]

Navy Specials are hard to come by, I just got one this year and I have only seen one or two more. I paid $600 for it and thought that was a bargain. That number 25 on the pistol beats me, but one thing I know is anything can be possible on a Japanese firearm. riceone.

[Claven2]

I buy every Japanese firearm I come across in VG+ condition or better. In over a decade of collecting, that amounts to only one rifle! The T99 in the MKL They are really uncommon here in decent shape since most are just the used up Chinese imports from the mid-90's. The one I have is probably a vet bringback brought to Canada when an American moved here. Most of the screws are still peened and I've never had it completely apart. I had to take off the trigger guard and drop out the mag because it has half-full of tropical beech sand and tiny rounded ocean pebbles - probably had been there since it was captured.

The mum is ground, but from what I've read it was common for US soldiers to turn captured rifles in to ship's stores until the ships got back to the US post-war, and that most of those rifles were handed back to the owners with the mums "officially" defaced.

I've seen tons of the Chinese surplused guns up here though. Almost always they are Type 38's and usually the wood is really rough and the bores very poor. You do see the odd chinese surplused early Type 99 with beat wood and rusted metal, but the chrome lined bore still looking great.

[tiriaq]

The barrel on my Special Navy appears to have been salvaged from a Type 99 short rifle - it is serial numbered around the breech collar with a different number than is on the left side of the rifle's receiver. It also has the chromed bore. The front sight unit is a one piece iron casting. In the barrel inlet are the penciled characters for Nakamura who I assume was the assembler. The way these are made is very interesting; essentially all the parts of a very late Type 99 short rifle are there, but made out of cast iron. Some of the screws have off centre slots, as if they were cut with a hacksaw. I wonder if there was a special bayonet made for these rifles, using the same sort of manufacture.
I suspect that these rifles are uncommon for two reasons: limited production; and, any surviving rifles were probably discarded unless retained as a curiosity because of their crudeness.