Questions on the Type 14 Nambu

[TheFlynn01]

Hey there and thanks for reading!

I was looking to pick up a Nambu pistol. I have other Japanese rifles and felt it would be fun to add to the collection. I was curious what folks might be able to tell me about them, if any one version is better than the other and what not.

I know that the Nambu type 14 gets a lot of flack for issues with being underpowered or unreliable, I have also heard that with the right ammo they operate just fine. What's your thoughts on that?

Also, reloading? I reload for my rifles and would want to do the same for the pistol, but I cant seem to find dies, so any info there would be great too!

Thanks for reading!
-Mike

 

[Bandit67]

A couple years ago I was going to try reloading some Nambu ammo for a friend. I found that Die sets were extremely rare and expensive. In the $200-$300 range before Covid. They would pop up on Ebay every now and then.
He found some old factory ammo at a gun show so we gave up on reloading.
I do know there's a way to convert .357 sig brass. You can Google that.

 

[9mmepiphany]

if any one version is better than the other and what not.

For a collection, I'd choose one with he smaller original trigger guard....just looks nicer. They are earlier production and show show better manufacturing quality

 

[TheFlynn01]

A couple years ago I was going to try reloading some Nambu ammo for a friend. I found that Die sets were extremely rare and expensive. In the $200-$300 range before Covid. They would pop up on Ebay every now and then.
He found some old factory ammo at a gun show so we gave up on reloading.
I do know there's a way to convert .357 sig brass. You can Google that.

Hmm okay thats good to know. A shame that the Dies are so hard to find, but its a old and not exatly popular pistol. I will look into the .357 sig conversion. Both are necked down so it makes sense to me a bit.

For a collection, I'd choose one with he smaller original trigger guard....just looks nicer. They are earlier production and show show better manufacturing quality

View attachment 1006383

You are not wrong the smaller trigger guard as a bit of charm to it! They both look really cool to me. The nambu always reminded me of a sort of Luger adjacent design, at least visually, I know they are totally different internally. Any other words of wisdom or good know how? Any idea what makes them so unreliable today? I would imagine age and perhaps worn out replaceable, and poor ammo. I cant imagine a army would accept something that worked so poorly.

 

[9mmepiphany]

The trigger guard was enlarged to allow ease of use when wearing gloves (in cold weather climates). The Type 14 was the standard issue for officers...thought they had to buy their own

As to reliability, even worst was the Type 94, which was issued to NCOs. Besides being ugly (uglier than a Glock) they were unsafe...they could be fired without touching the trigger.

The nambu always reminded me of a sort of Luger adjacent design, at least visually, I know they are totally different internally

The Type 14 (reflecting the year it was adopted) was an "economy version of the Type B. The Type B is communally referred to as the Baby Nambu and is highly collectable...it's action is based on the Mauser C96

 

[tark]

As to reliability, even worst was the Type 94, which was issued to NCOs. Besides being ugly (uglier than a Glock) they were unsafe...they could be fired without touching the trigger.

Ahhhh...Yes! The much maligned model 94. We have (actually, had,) two 94s before the army decided to gut the museum of nearly all of its guns. Here are the two. If the bottom gun looks much better finished and blued that's because it is. It rivals any luger I have ever seen. It is a pre-war commercial model and it is a superbly made gun ( albeit an ugly one. ) I tried to get it to fire without pressing the trigger. but pressing on the sear bar didn't seem to work. I think much of the reputation these guns have is largely undeserved.

Couldn't get the uglier military gun to fire either.

 

[barnetmill]

Ahhhh...Yes! The much maligned model 94. We have (actually, had,) two 94s before the army decided to gut the museum of nearly all of its guns. Here are the two. If the bottom gun looks much better finished and blued that's because it is. It rivals any luger I have ever seen. It is a pre-war commercial model and it is a superbly made gun ( albeit an ugly one. ) I tried to get it to fire without pressing the trigger. but pressing on the sear bar didn't seem to work. I think much of the reputation these guns have is largely undeserved.

Couldn't get the uglier military gun to fire either.

A retired marine that had fired one on some island during WWII with issued Japanese ammo, he said it was a very nice gun to shoot. I do not know know the model.

 

[garandsrus]

I have reformed both 40 S&W and 357 Sig brass for use in a 8 Nambu. They worked well and there wasn’t really any difference between the two. I made a die to reduce the case diameter to Nambu size. It takes a pretty stout press but works. It might be easier to use two dies, taking the case down in two steps.

The reformed and loaded cases worked great. We were shooting them in a Type 94. I managed to find a set of dies at a reasonable price, after a couple months of looking. I also found some factory brass to help locate the shoulder of the reformed cases.

 

[Jimbo80]

My '43 Nagoya Arsenal 14 has had a couple of mags through it with no problems. While the earlier small trigger guard looks better I wanted a wartime production gun. I enjoy having it in my collection. I don't reload but found new production 8mm Nambu was available from Steinels pre Covid but like everything else is currently OOS. I believe it was Bill Ruger's inspiration when he designed the Mk 1.

 

[dodo bird]

Hey there and thanks for reading!

I was looking to pick up a Nambu pistol. I have other Japanese rifles and felt it would be fun to add to the collection. I was curious what folks might be able to tell me about them, if any one version is better than the other and what not.

I know that the Nambu type 14 gets a lot of flack for issues with being underpowered or unreliable, I have also heard that with the right ammo they operate just fine. What's your thoughts on that?

Also, reloading? I reload for my rifles and would want to do the same for the pistol, but I cant seem to find dies, so any info there would be great too!

Thanks for reading!
-Mike

Thanks for posting this tread. I didn’t know much about these pistols. Looks like fun to shoot. The prices are all over the place. Starts around 800$ to $30,000 for other Nambu models. I just would like to shoot a magazine. Piece of history for sure.
https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/pistols/nambu-pistols.c209_p1_o6.cfm

 

[Meeks36]

Kinda looks lik

Ahhhh...Yes! The much maligned model 94. We have (actually, had,) two 94s before the army decided to gut the museum of nearly all of its guns. Here are the two. If the bottom gun looks much better finished and blued that's because it is. It rivals any luger I have ever seen. It is a pre-war commercial model and it is a superbly made gun ( albeit an ugly one. ) I tried to get it to fire without pressing the trigger. but pressing on the sear bar didn't seem to work. I think much of the reputation these guns have is largely undeserved.

Couldn't get the uglier military gun to fire either.

Kinda looks like a old school hi point before they went to that new fangled polymer.