8mm Nambu

[wombat13]

My FIL has a 8mm Nambu which was given to him by a neighbor who brought it back from the Phillipines at the end of WWII. FIL told me that he would never be able to fire the pistol because "no one makes ammo for it and the Marines destroyed all the Jap ammo at the end of the war." So, of course, I took that as a challenge and using the awesome power of the internet I found three sources of ammo in about 15 minutes.

Anyway, we put a box of ammo through the pistol last week and had a blast. It's fun to shoot and makes a heck of a bang for such a small round. Unfortunately, it's not very accurate. We were getting about 6" groups at 10 yards. I'm sure it wasn't operator error either. I shoot a heck of a lot better than that with my XD and my FIL used to shoot competitively. It's just not very accurate. According to what I've read about the Nambu, Jap officers found it to be so inaccurate and unreliable that many carried swords rather than the pistol.

So now I've fired a WWII Luger and a WWII Nambu. I've got to get my hands on a WWII 1911.

[einheit 13]

Originally Posted by wombat13

My FIL has a 8mm Nambu which was given to him by a neighbor who brought it back from the Phillipines at the end of WWII. FIL told me that he would never be able to fire the pistol because "no one makes ammo for it and the Marines destroyed all the Jap ammo at the end of the war." So, of course, I took that as a challenge and using the awesome power of the internet I found three sources of ammo in about 15 minutes.

Anyway, we put a box of ammo through the pistol last week and had a blast. It's fun to shoot and makes a heck of a bang for such a small round. Unfortunately, it's not very accurate. We were getting about 6" groups at 10 yards. I'm sure it wasn't operator error either. I shoot a heck of a lot better than that with my XD and my FIL used to shoot competitively. It's just not very accurate. According to what I've read about the Nambu, Jap officers found it to be so inaccurate and unreliable that many carried swords rather than the pistol.

So now I've fired a WWII Luger and a WWII Nambu. I've got to get my hands on a WWII 1911.

Which Nambu is it, the Type 14, "Papa" or the "Baby" Nambu.....Graf & Sons has the best ammo for those pistols, Old West Scrounger is the least accurate, with Buffalo Arms holding 2nd.... and unless is the ammo or the barrel, it should be pretty accurate....2"-4" at 25 yards......

[mity2]

is it the Type 14 or Type 94 with exposed sear?

Either way, I would love to get my hand on early Type 14 with small trigger guard to add to my collection....

I heard that you can still buy blass from Norma. But most i've seen is made from 40S&W.
every now and ten you'll see the reft over 8mm Nambu in Gunbroker.com too.
Post pic of the gun man!

[Brickboy240]

No...its not a Luger or 1911...is it?

It is a well known bit or lore that many WWII Japanese nambus had oversized bores. This meant that they were not very accurate. Slug it and then mic the ammo - I'll bet theres a ton of difference.

I have heard of some people casting their own bullets and handloading to get decent accuracy out of their Nambus, but this is trial and error at best.

That is a good piece of history, but don't be expecting it to emmulate its WWII contemporaries like the M1911A1, Canadian Inglis Hi-Power, TT-33 Tokerev, P-38 or P-08 Luger and you'll not be disappointed.

The Japanese never built a good tank or handgun in WWII.

- Brickboy240

[einheit 13]

Originally Posted by Brickboy240

No...its not a Luger or 1911...is it?

It is a well known bit or lore that many WWII Japanese nambus had oversized bores. This meant that they were not very accurate. Slug it and then mic the ammo - I'll bet theres a ton of difference.

I have heard of some people casting their own bullets and handloading to get decent accuracy out of their Nambus, but this is trial and error at best.

That is a good piece of history, but don't be expecting it to emmulate its WWII contemporaries like the M1911A1, Canadian Inglis Hi-Power, TT-33 Tokerev, P-38 or P-08 Luger and you'll not be disappointed.

The Japanese never built a good tank or handgun in WWII.

- Brickboy240

I don't know, an anemic round yes, but with a 3.5 trigger pull and decent sights (on early models) .321 and .323 ammo is a must. Keep the velocity below 1,000 and thats as good as it gets for the 8x22 ammo...Besides, Ruger copied them to make the 1949 Ruger Standard, the cocking system and silhouette early Mark I,II,and III .22 pistols....don't say that they weren't great rim fire pistols either.

[wombat13]

The pistol is a Type 14 with the large trigger guard. It appears to have been made at the Nagoya Arsenal in January 1944. I bought the ammo from mrnambu on Gunbroker (appears to be a shop called Mac's Guns in Oklahoma). The brass is new 8mm brass, not necked down 40 S&W. I bought one box of ammo for my FIL and he bought two more boxes. He's planning to buy a a bunch of brass, a bullet mold, and the reloading dies so he and whomever he leaves the gun to will always have ammo if they want it.

How do I attach a picture? Cut and paste doesn't seem to be working.

[bigun]

Originally Posted by Brickboy240

No...its not a Luger or 1911...is it?

It is a well known bit or lore that many WWII Japanese nambus had oversized bores. This meant that they were not very accurate. Slug it and then mic the ammo - I'll bet theres a ton of difference.

I have heard of some people casting their own bullets and handloading to get decent accuracy out of their Nambus, but this is trial and error at best.

That is a good piece of history, but don't be expecting it to emmulate its WWII contemporaries like the M1911A1, Canadian Inglis Hi-Power, TT-33 Tokerev, P-38 or P-08 Luger and you'll not be disappointed.

The Japanese never built a good tank or handgun in WWII.

- Brickboy240

I was going to sugest the same. Actually the Nambu is quite underated reliability and accuracy wise, with a properly sized bullet they are usually quite accurate but the 8mm is not really a powerhouse round and Japaneese bushido beliefs or the way of the Samuri encouraged Officers to carry swords and close to hand to hand distances. We should be verry thankfull of these beliefs because without the human wave or Bonzi tactics the Japs would have been much harder to defeat.

[Brickboy240]

Oh, the Nambu functions just fine, but it does not have the looks or feel of the M1911A1, Walther P-38 or the P-08 Luger. Thats what I was getting at.

- Brickboy240