Early Nambu Type 94 (1937)

[somd_mustangs]

Pre-war Type 94's are fairly hard to find; by the end of 1940 they'd only made about 22,000 (sounds like a lot but the hard years of losses were yet to come). The first year of production, 1935, saw only about 700 out the door. Roughly 1000 got made in 1936, and by 1937 they'd really ramped up production with about 2700 or so Total production by war's end was only a hair over 71,000 compared to ~279,000 Type 14's. This pistol is Showa date 12.9, or September 1937. At this point the pistols had a nice rust-blue finish, straw trigger, magazine safety assembly, and magazine release. You can see there are areas where the machining was left rough, even this early in the game. The inside of the slide, frame and bolt are "in the white" due to the rust blue process.

I threw a Mawkie-price(TM) bid at it and was kind of surprised to win it, along with another somewhat unusual Type 94. The auction house made no mention if the magazine matched, and it's always a gamble to pick up one of these and assume the internal parts are matching too. Fortunately, this one does still have all of its original numbered parts, and also the proper numbers-matched magazine (which was a pleasant surprise). It's in an interesting transition period where the hammer and trigger screw heads are still "exposed" (phased out a couple months later) and the magazine baseplate has the "hump" pressed in (phased in a couple months earlier). Unfortunately, it suffered from poor storage at some point and has speckling throughout, as well as some bad pitting at the muzzle.

 

[somd_mustangs]

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, so after a few pokes that didn't budge the trigger/sear bar pin, I left it in place (ok so I'm assuming it's matched but it doesn't look like the pin has ever been removed). The magazine release button is staked in place and takes a special tool, so I never remove that to look at the mag catch and safety. If it's still staked, I'm assuming it's still matched. The parts are still strawed so that's a positive sign. I didn't pull the extractor either because those are pretty easy to break... then you're hosed. The grips aren't numbered, as far as I know they never were on the T-94's (unlike the T-14's).

 

[somd_mustangs]

When I got this I figured I'd need to find some original screws or shorten the ones that were installed in the frame... the heads stick up above the frame surface. I mean, there's no way they would have made them like that originally, right? Well, apparently they did. The frame isn't counter-sunk for the heads. The screws are actually numbered to the gun too! Crazy. Not long after this (Showa 12.11) they started counter-sinking the screws. Not sure when they stopped numbering them.

 

[Trepang]

Very cool!
Nice find

 

[LCPIWB]

Cool.
Any idea my the serial on the slide appears to be 2884, while all the other numbering is 884?

 

[somd_mustangs]

The Japanese only used the last 3 digits of the S/N to number the small parts (including the slide).
There are a few rare exceptions where they used 4 digits but that was mid/late war.
This is one of 'em, an "off-date" 19.8... the barrel only has 3 digits.
Interestingly, the hammer is mis-matched with another 4 digit number.

 

[somd_mustangs]

The other 4-digit I have is a 17.7 "on-date" which is pretty uncommon, That one has a mis-matched 4 digit firing pin.

 

[somd_mustangs]

The other pistol I picked up with 2884 above is also a 17.7 on-date but has the normal 3-digits on the small parts. Pure coincidence it's the same date but I got it specifically because it was an "on-date" (and it was cheap). I also have another that falls right smack between these two 17.7's and it's a more typical 18.6 "off-date".

Ironically the 19.8 "off-date" in post 6 falls in the 18.6 "on-date" range so it must have been held back at some point. Lots of crazy stuff happened and it's confusing.

Checkout Mark C's site:

Type 94 Nambu

 

[MilsurpDan]

Congrats! Very nice find.

I still need to find a nice Nambu.

 

[somd_mustangs]

Don't wait too long!
Like everything else prices are hiking up esp the T-94... what used to be a $750-850 for a nice all-matching pistol pre-Coof is now more like a $1100-$1200+ pistol.

 

[tallen702]

I'm sure the heavy pitting on the left side of the front of the slide was a turn-off to other bidders. Glad you were able to throw a Mawkie Price™ and nab it.

 

[somd_mustangs]

It is/was a turn off to me too, but I didn't have one this early. If they'd mentioned the magazine matched it might have gone a lot higher. With that factored in and the holster that came with it, I could easily double my money but it's a keeper until/if a better one comes along. There were a lot of great guns (including the Wildey collection) so the two T-94's were low-tier, low-interest stuffed in the midst.

 

[mawkie]

-Appreciate you taking the time to photograph everything. Never imagined they would number stamp the screws too! So happy to see you got a nice, matching example at a great price. Made possible by being the low hanging fruit in an auction that was filled with a lot of unique unobtanium. Kept the competition's focus away from these goodies. Another one of my Mawkie Rules of Acquisition: look for the black sheep in a catalog.
Would love to see the holster as they're not so easy to find.
-For those younger collectors here my advice matches somd_mustang's: look hard at Japanese pistols. They've been undervalued for some time and the opportunity to get one at an affordable price is starting to close. The German, British and Italian pistol markets have pretty much stabilized for a while now with only the best and rarest still appreciating. The best buy I ever saw at Redding was a very nice mid war T-14 rig with immaculate holster sell for $650 OTD. The buyer basically got the pistol for $450 if you factor in a very conservative $200 for the holster. I'm still scratching my head over just why Nambu's have sold so cheap when you factor in their low production numbers.

 

[somd_mustangs]

The holster that came with it is nothing special, some wear but stitching and leather intact. It has steel strap loops (I think) so probably later than the pistol (?). No cleaning rod though, the originals are hard to find and the early ones, even more so! Still probably a $200 holster at least, in this market. Hammer price was $650 so even with the vig and shipping (and pitting) it was a pretty good deal I think.