Nambu Pistol

The Japanese Nambu Type 94 Pistol is one dangerous sidearm not in the sense of its firepower.
But, in terms of its terrible design that produces accidental discharge.
When loaded, this pistol was known to fire at the worst possible times. Witness why the Nambu Type 94 Pistol might be the most dangerous handgun ever made.


Back in World War Two Japananese forces used the Nambu Type 94 Pistol as their service pistol. The Nambu Type 94 Pistol was chambered for the weak 8mm Nambu cartridge. The magazine capacity was 6 rounds.
When loaded if the pistol could fire accidentally if the exposed sear bar gets pushed. Holstering a loaded Nambu Type 94 Pistol could cause a nasty accident when that sear bar gets bumped. Now that is scary for us concealed carrier.

Obviously this old military sidearm never made it past modern firearms to say the least. Special thanks go out to TFB TV for sharing this video and teaching us a really unknown historical weapon fail that could still bite you in the leg.

Video Transcription
So this is it. The most dangerous pistol ever made.

What you’re looking at isn’t something I cobbled together out of spare bits of metal in my garage, but a Japanese Type-94 Nambu pistol. We’ve taken a look at the type-14 in the past, and that didn’t go so well.

So this is about the ugliest firearm I’ve ever seen, as it looks like it was made by a fellow who had a little too much shochu before heading into work. While the late-war Japanese firearms all generally look pretty bad, this one may take the cake. There have been some horrendous service pistols adopted, however, this one stands out. And even the, quote, “good examples” are horrible.

Before we get into it, the Type 94 is chambered in 8mm Nambu, a bottle-necked cartredge that only delivers about as much energy as 380. That’s 9mm on the right.

Mags hold six rounds, and are loaded by depressing a small tab on the right side.

The pistols are locked by means of a short falling-block that is mechanically interesting. Sights are comically bad, but to be honest there isn’t a whole bunch about this gun that isn’t. So enough talk, let’s hit the range and see why the type-94 is so dangerous.

So here it is. Pretty unassuming looking, really. I mean, it’s ugly, but a lot of late-war Japanese guns are ugly. As long as they worked, though, they were okay. So let’s put some earpro on, throw a round in. I’m gonna fire a couple shots just to make sure it works okay.

[Shots]

You know, really it’s not a terrible shooting pistol, but the problem is, you don’t have to pull the trigger to shoot it.

[Shot]

Let me show you why.

So the type-94 has an exposed Sear bar, and that’s gonna be that right there. Now… [click] you heard it release right there, and the problem was that, in theory, if you holstered it, that could rub something and go off into your leg. There’s all kinds of rumors and stuff that the Japanese would surrender to Americans like this [holding the pistol sideways, fingers on the sear bar] I don’t know if that’s substantiated or not, but I’m gonna demonstrate one more time that you can, in fact, fire it without touching the trigger.

[Shot]

Now of course that kills the– no, it actually did re-set! Let me see if I can fire it one more time here. [Shot, click, shot]

So yeah, in theory, I guess you could compete in IDPA and not ever have to touch the trigger on this pistol. Also not the most handsome pistol I’ve ever seen.

[shooting]

Alright, I’m gonna see if I can accurately shoot this gun without pulling the trigger.

[shooting]

Three outta three. Not bad, actually.

So something tells me that the type-94 would not make it through a modern firearm manufacturer’s legal department. Other people will also, basically, become apologists for this pistol and say that it was meant to be carried without a round in the chamber and with the safety on at all times. The safety, of course, only blocks the movement of the sear bar, which is kinda funny in and of itself. But realistically, they made over 70,000 of these, and the fact that something like that could happen, I mean if you think about it it’s possible that while holstering the pistol you could bump that sear bar and shoot yourself in the leg. That is not something you want to happen if you’re stuck inside of a tank or, really, at any point ever, when you’re doing anything.

But this is a terrible gun, it’s extremely dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, I kinda barely know what I’m doing, but even then, every time I take this thing out, it’s bizarre. And you show people that this was designed this way, and it was okayed by an ordinance board. And that’s the most shocking part, is that other Japanese firearms are spectacular, they had some real stinkers, this one is in my opinion absolutely horrendous.

Anyways everybody, I hope you enjoyed this video, big thanks to Ventura Munitions, we hope to see you next time.

Sources: TFB TV