Got a Nambu pistol?

Here is mine/. Early Type 14 year 6.2 - Feb 1931.

It has the small trigger guard and there is an original lanyards attached

Here is the keeper or slide plus the leather where the ends are joined

Other shots

The holster is of much later vintage. A rubberized canvas one.

There is a faded mark inside the holster lid.

Probably says "Cut price ammo at Watanabe's on Maru Street"

The holster has both a cleaning rod and a spare striker.

Still experimenting with a new camera. Any other shots you want ?

You got one ? Lets see

Dave

Anybody know what the ideograms on the inside of the holster mean ?

Also, I meant to say that the original lanyard is worth quite a bit.


Anybody have a japanese pistol to show ? .. or an Arisaka rifle ?

hi dave
good morning to you sorry at the moment i cant take any pictures of my nambu pistols as my hands are full with moveing what i believe those hack marks are on the inside of the flap of the holster makers marks in my opinion most of the nambu holsters have them the ring lanyards are scarce to find that is the originals not the repros yes they brought decent money now you can hardly see the difference in the real verses the fakes just like everything else copied the extra fireing pin should have the last digit numbers on the edge the cleaning rod is extra bucks hard to find i believe i have an extra one will have it at the max show along with a few nambu holsters boy the time is flying max show is on the horizon see you there for fun and goodies god bless andy militarynut

Andy

The spare striker has 8 3 1 stamped on the side but the cleaning rod has no marks.

Dave

hi dave
the 831 is that the same or last three numbers of the pistol the cleaning rod usually is never marked at least i have never seen one marked but both the fireing pin in the holster and the one in the nambu should be same number but they do break in the field and if there is no outher pin they used ones with no numbers hope this has helped you god bless andy militarynut

Andy,

Nope. You can the pistol's number in the second post on page 1.

But the gun was made in year 6.2 which is February of 1931 I think. It would have had an early leather holster. By the time it was it was surrendered or captured 13 or 14 years later it was in the rubberized canvas holster shown. Doubtful the original spare striker would have still been with it.

Dave

hi dave
yes you are correct came with a leather holster in 1931 the japanese didnt come around to makeing the rubberized holsters mostly when they captured the rubber plantations in the philipines and like the germans they expermented with different ways to save on the leather to make these last ditch holsters last i would say this with all sencerity there were no cowards in the japanese army they fought to the end so i would say it was taken as a war trophy by a soldier who killed the japanese officer who owned it surender was never in the japanese books and if an american soldier or britts or australian soldiers surrendered most of the japanese soldiers shot them for surendering in the japanese soldiers eyes they were cowards that was thier bushido code of honor but war has no winners sorry to get carried away with a histoy lesson but thats me god bless andy militarynut

Here is an 8mm bullet for the Nambu type 14. Equates to .315 caliber

A necked cartridge about 1? long.

Center fire with no head stamp ... at least on this one.

It came in a pack of 14 which I will post separately as there is something stamped on it that I would like to have translated

Dave

Something I missed on the cartridges:

Look at the pic 2 up of the bullet standing up. Notice the two indentations in the brass just below the bullet ? There are three on each cartridge set 120 degrees apart.

The only thing that comes to mind as that they were impressed into the brass to keep the bullet from falling out. (?)

Anyone seen anything like this before ? ... or have another explanation ?

Dave

hi dave
intresting i have many nambu cartriges and i never paid an attention to it and yes in my opinion i think same as you purpious for dimples so the head of projectile wont fall out also in my opinion i never seen a nambu cartridge with head stamps to show the calibur all cool stuff hope this helps god bless andy militarynut

Andy,

The Japanese Army and Navy had completely different acquisition services. If my info is correct, the IJN Nambu ammo had headstamps. I've never seen one myself. You ever heard of Navy marked type 14's ?

hi dave
in all my years in this hobby i never seen a navy marked nambu pistol and i never seen nambu ammo with head stamps to identifi the nambu ammo only fraze used for years true its a bottled neck cartridge which it is the 7.63 broom stick mauser pistol ammo is close in size just a little longer but side by side its close call i can tell difference the only outher is the baby nambu pistol 7mm or the only outher is the type 26 revolver dont remember that calliber is it 9mm sorry im getting old and forgetfull on stuff like this hope you agree god bless andy the only military nut around

Andy,

You are correct in that while the IJN used the Nambu type 14 and other pistols, I have found no mention of special marks or even reserved serial number blocks. From what I read, the type 14 was used by officers and NCOs of the IJN as well as the Special Naval Landing Forces or Rikusentai.

Wikipedia says this about the ammo:

"The Japanese Army cartridges in 8 mm Nambu have no markings on the headstamp unlike the Japanese Navy cartridges"

Maybe they are full of beans, but it could be interesting to know.

Dave

hi dave
yes thats intresting to know but so far i never seen any japanese navy ammo marked there was another japanese pistol called type 94 semi auto not a safe pistol when its loaded and acidently droped on its side it is known to go off just as dangerious as the 1930 italian gesenti that resembles the german luger only difference the gesenti has a straight blow back where the german luger has a togle i will have a nice type 94 at the max with holster inside of holster is marked by u.s. soldier inside of lether flap RAT thats what they were called RATS or WEISELS unmercefull if captured by them thats for sure ok history lesson over thanks my pleasure god bless andy militarynut

Andy,

There apparently was a Naval Arsenal at Yokosuka - Still a major navy base - that made ammo for various gun including the Type 14. So maybe ...?

hi dave
we never say never in this great military hobby how about asking vern he is as old as me and he might shed a light on this japanese naval mystery stay welltill the max which is right around the corner god bless andy

Don't recall seeing any 8mm or 7mm Nambu ammo with headstamps. I have seen original 15 round boxes of Nambu ammo but most were marked for the Tokyo Arsenal and dated for 1944 or 45. Photo is a sealed box from the Tokyo Arsenal dated 2-20 (February 1945).

hi vern
good morning to you thanks for weighing in here both my self and dave needed an expert like you to help us out here if any one knew it would be you your thoughts and mine are the same but any way like we said before never say never could be might be some naval marked even going back 1970s midway produced japanese 8mm ammo to the exact specs plus no head stamps at all if you put the original 8mm round next to the midway cant see any difference at all alsi in the 1965 i bought my first japanese officers type 14 pistol no ammo to fire it i looked in the shotgun news and found a ww2 navy man makeing 8mm nambu on a 38call short shell necked down to acept the bottle neck cartridge but he said to me the shells may expand and split but no harm will come to me and i fired all the rounds and some split but no problems came to me 50 rds for i believe 22.00 shipped it was fun fireing this japanese officers pistol vern its my pleasure to have you abord with me and dave god bless all andy militarynut

Hey, you guys are the experts. In my years of collecting, I only had one Nambu. It was in 7mm and a friend talked me out of it when I had trouble finding ammo

You'll only find Papa nambus that are anchor stamped for navy use. Never seen or heard of navy marked type 14 or 94 nor have I seen navy marked ammo.

hi jareth
you are der man when it comes to japanese anything i never had a popa nambu but had only one baby nambu mostly type 14 and type 94s oh well cant have them all well dave i guess the naval marked ammo doesnt exist glad that jareth answered our hard questions thank you very much jareth have a nice day members god bless all andy militarynut

I have unopened boxed rifle ammo that has red ink stamped anchor denoting naval use BUT have yet to see any pistol ammo boxes similarly marked

hi jareth
cool a unopened box of japanese naval rifle ammo how cool is that never knew they existed thanks very much for telling us this great japanese history we all learn from the experts have a great day god bless andy militarynut

Andy,

I think I have solved/answered my own question.

The naval arsenal at Yokosuka (as well as those at Asahi and Toyakoya) did produce head stamped ammunition during WWII, but was not for pistols.

They made 7.7mm bullets (same as .303 British) for their rifles and machine guns and maybe for captured British SMLE Enfields captured in Malaya, Singapore, Burma, etc. They also made 13 mm ammo for heavy machine guns.

hi dave
7.7 rifle cartridges yes i seen those around over the years are these marks naval marks not sure just last month i got a call that this guy was selling some japanese rifle ammo along with japanese machine gun strips of ammo these strips are mounted on brass holders and they are 7.7 machine gun ammo for the pill box machine guy and they will not fire in the arasaka rifle which is the same calliber 7.7 they are different then the rifle back in the 1970s i bought three full cases sealed and sold them for 15.00 a strip sold out in an hour but since then the price went up conciderly just like coffee used to be a buck but now its all most three bucks oh well i ashould have a half case ofjapanese strips etc at the max this year i cleaned the guy out old stock thanks for the memories guys god bless andy militarynut

I have about 5 type 14 Nambu pistols and 2 type 94s. I will check the ammo I have to see if it has any head stamps.
Also, like Militarynut, in 1978 I bought some necked down 38 rounds for my first Nambu. Sill have the full box upstairs, never shot it the Nambu.
One of the few, Frank USMC RET

hi frank
thanks for serving all you veterans that served god bless all of you guys now the japanese nambu ammo i have found in over fifty years they never had a head stamp all i ever came accross 8mm was blank not the babby nambu was 7mm thats very expensive ammo scarce as hens teeth and hens dont have any teeth now the rifles was 7.7 and 6.5 calliber they also made 7.7mm japanese 99 machine gun ammo strips i have a few of them please remember the japanese machine gun ammo 7.7mm is different then 7.7mm rifle ammo hope this info has helped every one god bless andy militarynut