Pistol 8mm Bullets

The Japanese used three different rounds in their principal service handguns, all of them uniquely Japanese: 8mm Nambu, 9mm revolver and 7mm Nambu. There is information about these calibers in Cartridges of the World, Revised 5th Edition by Frank C. Barnes, editor (DBI Books, Northbrook, Illinois, 1985) on pages 173 (7mm Nambu) and 182 (8mm Nambu). Oddly, the book does not include 9mm Japanese revolver, though almost ten times as many guns were made for it as the 7mm Nambu cartridge. The Japanese made several other foreign calibres, especially .32 ACP. These were principally for pistols privately purchased by officers, although a few Japanese-made guns were also chambered for rounds like .25 ACP or .32 ACP.

            In the photo above, the cartridge on the left is a 7mm Nambu for the Baby. The bottle-necked cartridge to the right of that is an 8mm Nambu for the Type 14, Type 94, Papa, Grandpa and a few others. Second from the right is a 9mm Japanese revolver (for the Type 26). The one on the far right with the red band is a Japanese-made .32 ACP, mostly used in imported pistols but also in some domestic ones like the Hamada.

Pistol 8mm Bullets