- 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, uh,
that didn't go so well.
So this is just 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 in to 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 bottleneck cartridge 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 really, looking,
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 ear pro on, throw a round in.
(magazine slides in)
I'm gonna fire a couple of shots
just to make sure it works okay.
(pistol fires)
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.
(pistol fires)
Let me show you why.
So the Type 94 has an exposed sear bar.
And that's gonna be that right there.
Now
(bolt releases with a metallic clink)
you heard it release right there,
and the problem was, that in theory,
if you holstered it, that could rub something
and go off in your leg.
There's all kinds of rumors and stuff
that the Japanese would surrender to Americans like this,
um, I don't know if those are substantiated or not,
but I'm gonna demonstrate one more time
(cycles pistol)
that you can in fact fire it without touching the trigger.
(pistol fires)
And now of course that kills the,
or actually, it did reset,
let me see if I can fire it one more time here.
(pistol fires)
(dry fires)
(cycles pistol)
(dry fires)
(cycles pistol)
(pistol fires)
So yeah.
In theory you could, I guess, compete in IDPA
and not ever have to touch the trigger
on this pistol.
Also, not the most handsome pistol
I've ever seen.
(pistol fires)
All right I'm going to see if I can accurately
shoot this gun without pulling the trigger.
(pistol fires)
(cycles pistol)
(pistol fires)
(cycles pistol)
(pistol fires)
Three out of 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 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 actually kind of 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, think, if you were holstering your pistol
it's possible that 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, well,
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 kind of 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 ordnance 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.