Nambu Typ 14, range report
 

Fired the old Nambu for the first time today. When it shoots, it shoots well - seemingly pretty accurate with soft recoil. But I only managed to send 12 rounds down range as it was a jam-O-matic, even though I put all new springs in it, blah, blah. One was a nasty failure to extract, that took 3 hands to unfarkle - my wife had to hold back on the bolt while I pressed the mag release and extracted the mag. I'm not going to worry about it too much as I really didn't buy it to shoot (much).

Ran about 35 rds through my Luger, which performed the best it ever has what with a new recoil spring in place. The only problem I had was an occasional FTF the last round in a magazine - particularly a newly acquired 7 rounder that FTF both times I used it. G.T. it was the "new" one that I sent with the Nambu mags.

In other news, the LGS just happened to have a Ruger MKIII in the version that I've been wanting - 6 inch "standard" barrel. Its now in "jail", waiting for 10 days for me to liberate it. :jumper:

nice I am getting a hankering for a nambu too but lugers come first.....good for you Zormpas

What ammunition were you shooting (bullet wt, powder if known, case mfg, etc)???

Besides the springs, what else is included in the blah blah??? IIRC, you had the 'standard' spring kit...

I also have a Ruger SS .22 auto, 4" tapered bbl, Mk 2 I think...Only fired it a couple times, don't recall how it shot...I could only get HV ammunition for it; I wanted target velocity but still can't find any... :mad:

Getting back to the Nambu, check the hook part of the extractor...Mine is worn (or maybe chipped) quite a bit on one side...

yo, what is the year on your nambu?

Zormpas,

The Nambu is totally a handloading proposition, and, in my experienced opinion, so is the Luger.

Do you handload? If not, do you know someone who does?

The Nambu isn't as hard to get to operate properly as a Luger, but there are certain parameters to be followed.

I really enjoyed shooting my Nambus, back in the day, and will be shooting them more frequently, now that others have expressed an interest and have reignited mine.

Back in the late 1970s, when I first started collecting Nambus, nobody liked them and they were dirt cheap. One good reason for this was the lack of readily available commercial ammo.

Fast forward 40 years, and there is, at least, some interest in collecting them, but still no readily available commercial ammo to shoot through them.

Really, I feel the Nambu T-14 is of excellent design, borrowing the lower from the Luger and the upper from the Mauser C-96.

It is true that the safety could have easily been relocated for easier use and a simple hold-open devise designed and added to round out the design of the T-14 a bit, but, this wasn't the case.

Perhaps, had the Japanese simply adopted the 9mm Parabellum cartridge in their new T-14, the shooting world would have been a different place.


Sieger

PS: The feeding problem, with your Nambu, sounds like a typical cartridge O.A.L. problem to me. Original O.A.L. was at 31.5mm (1.24 inches).

I'll check the extractor and the cartridge OAL. The ammo is from "Mr. Nambu", which by all accounts is supposed to cycle reliably.

Yea, it was the std Wolff spring kit - I had G.T. replace the mag springs (I have 2 mags) for me as I felt I'd screw something up if I tried. Hugh fixed up the grips for me.

Hi,

I have two of these that need new extractors, as the original ones are made out of what appears to be fairly soft metal.


Sieger

Good to know, that might fix all kinds of problems. I'll have a looksee, and thank you! :cheers:

Mine is chipped. I contacted Don Schlickman ( dfsjpn@aol.com ) , he makes new extractors for the Nambu. If you email him, he'll send you a price list.

I had a Nambu T14 and T94 in the past. T14 came with 5 rounds of original 8mm cartridges in the holster pouch. The copper case already grew green rust.

Both were interesting pistols. I showed T14 to a college classmate who visited me. He hold it in hand, thought a while, asked "it's a Japanese WWII pistol in movies, isn't it?" (he's not a gun person).

A few years ago, another high school classmate's family visited me. Saw a few NCO shin-guntos I collected at that time. "Wow, you got this??!!!!"... I told him, "if you like, take one, my gift". But he worried he could not pass custom inspection so he did not. A few years passed, visited me again this year, asked "where are those swords?" ... I told him "too late, all gone now".

I never updated this thread - but I removed the extractor, cleaned a TINY bit of crud out from under its lip, and re-installed.

Next range trip it shot flawlessly. No problems whatsoever.

Its a very nice shooting pistol, stupid accurate, and soft recoiling as you'd expect from a large .32 caliber gun. It could easily be my favorite except for the price/availability of ammo.

Derby's Japanese handgun book had an interesting comparison of T14 against Mauser C96. The comparison was performed by the 4th Division of Japanese Army in 1935. Japanese captured large number of C96 in Manchuria. Result is copied here:

1. Accuracy: T14=Good, C96=Very Good;
2. Range: range of C96 is langer than T14;
3. Effectiveness: 7.63mm Mauser cartridge is more powerful than 8mm Nambu cartridge.
4. Magazine capacity: C96 hold more rounds in magazine.
5. Safety: T14 safety works well, C96 safety is undependable.
6. Weight: T14 is lighter than C96.
7. Function under extreme cold: T14=Poor, C96=Good.
8. Mechanism: T14=Simple, C96=Complicated
9. Handling: T14=Simple, C96=Rather difficult
10. Emergency handling: T14=Hard, C96=Easy

It's a pretty fair comparison.

That's a surprise to me. The T14's safety does work, but is very easy to bump out of position. The safety is one of the weakest points of this pistol IMO, it almost looks like an afterthought.

Surprise to me, too. My C96 safety notch is so deep that I can hear it as well as feel it engage. Very positive.

I also find the handling to be excellent. There is never any doubt as to where you are pointing it. :)

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I just sent a Nambu Type 14 bolt [stripped] off to Don Schlickman to have an extractor fabricated & installed. Don told me it was dovetailed into the bolt and some hand fitting is required [no charge]. I'll post pics when it arrives back.

If you can see the muzzle, you are pointing it the wrong way.

Regarding safety effectiveness, I think that most old single action pistol did not have effective safety -- most safety design did not lock the firing pin. Some locks the hammer (C96), locks the sear (Luger), locks the trigger (T14? I cannot remember), or some combination of these, but they did not lock the firing pin. So, on those SA pistols, many users load the magazine, but did NOT load the chamber until they wanted to use it. That's a good safety measure which compensated the ineffectiveness of the safety.

However, C96 was an exception. It got a fixed magazine, its normal operation did not allow loading the magazine without loading the chamber. The usual practice was to load the chamber, optionally lower the hammer down, and put the safety on. Always has a live round in chamber, and its safety only locks the hammer... The importance of safety on C96 is obvious.

No wonder Mauser kept changing the C96 safety design with a lot of energy. This gun was more dangerous than other pistols of its time.

But also because it always has a live round in chamber, its emergency handling was good.

That's my thought on this. Actually, matching Japanese assessment well.

Plus it takes two hands to throw it (the safety). Does anyone know how far bumped out of position it needs to be to be off safe? Hadn't thought of this aspect - next time I have my Nambu apart, I'll try to remember to check it out.

I'd rather know how far bumped out of position in order not to fire.

A pistol should always go bang when one needs it. Your life may depend on it.

Bumped out of position....

Interarms Luger could have this issue during fast firing. What bumped was not safety, it's the takedown latch. After fast firing 5 rounds out, I noticed the takedown latch turned about 30 or 40 degrees. I always remember to push it back, but what if operator did not notice this, .... could the gun self-disassemble during firing??!!! I don't know. This problem never shows up in slow firing though.

There is something wrong with that Luger. Even if the takedown latch is not fully engaged in the locked position the spring tension should force it to the fully engaged position under fire. at least that's what happens with my Lugers.

T 14-
I'm not at all sure how one "bumps" a T 14 safety, it is no where close to the hand or fingers when firing or holding? If it moves easily, then it is not correct and needs fixing. Just FYI, it also blocks movement of the very long sear bar, so it is a pretty "good" safety and it requires a highly intentional movement to change its position from safe to fire

Interarms-
That is a really strange problem, but like I said weeks ago- every Interarms or other luger copy I have seen has problems! Of course people don't bring it the good ones or the ones they don't fire with a problem!:o

It must fit really loose and have no or an undersize retention spring, but still should reset it self as kurusu says.

Last one I fired would set the safety toward "on" with nearly every shot, just enough for the safety bar to rise enough for the sear bar not to move out. No amount of tweaking would fix it and the owner did not want to spring for a vintage, original forged safety. The ones furnished are cast and have little or no "spring" to keep them in position.

Got my stripped bolt with new extractor back from Don Schlickman today. Nice work! Fits great (hand fitted) and cycles cases flawlessly! :)

Don's extractor on left; original [chipped] on right on spare bolt.

I have no idea how it shoots. Powder is not sold here anymore. :soapbox: