Some guns are bad, some are horrible, and some are horribly bad. The Type 94 Nambu may well be the most dangerous pistol to ever enter into military service, as it features one crippling feature that could result in a fatal injury to the user under the right (or wrong) circumstances. So what makes it so dangerous?

Transcript …

– 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) (pistol fires) (pistol fires) (pistol fires) (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) (pistol fires) (pistol fires) (pistol fires) (pistol fires) (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.