Japanese Contract Steyr-Solothurn S1-100 (aka MP34)
Japan
•
13m
In order to circumvent Versailles Treaty restrictions on arms manufacture, the German Rheinmetall firm purchased a small Swiss company called Solothurn Waffenfabrik in 1929, allowing it to route its business through Switzerland instead of Germany. One of its first products was the S1-100 submachine gun, designed by Louis Stange. This was an excellent example of a first generation submachine gun, made to very high standards with an elaborately milled receiver. They were expensive, premium guns in the 1930s, and were sold worldwide, including contracts to Bolivia, El Salvador, Japan, Thailand, Uruguay, Portugal, Austria, and more. To accommodate these different client militaries, the gun was offered in 9mm Steyr, 7.63mm Mauser, 7.65 Parabellum, and .45 ACP.
This particular example appears to be a Japanese one, purchase in the mid 1930s to equip some elite Japanese units like the Special Naval Landing Force. It is in 7.62mm Mauser and shows the D/E selector markings one would expect from that contract (other contracts used markings with Spanish or Portuguese abbreviations). This gun would have been captured by an American serviceman during World War II and brought back, to be registered later in the 1968 amnesty. It is all original, with the exception of what appears to be a replaced barrel.
Up Next in Japan
-
Shooting a Type 99 Nambu in 7.62mm NATO
Some older footage from the vault - this was a gun I bid on, but did not win. Didn't want to have the whole audience thinking about bidding against me...but now that it's been sold there's no reason not to post the video.
The conversion of the Type 99 Nambu form 7.7x58mm Japanese to 7.62mm NAT...
-
Japanese Type 10 Light Grenade Projec...
In the aftermath of World War One, the Japanese military saw the utility of infantry-portable light grenade launchers instead of rifle grenades, and adopted the Type 10 in 1921 (Taisho 10). It went into production in 1923 at the Tokyo Army Arsenal, although the great Tokyo earthquake led to produ...
-
Japanese Inagaki and Sugiura Pistols
The most common Japanese pistols used during World War II were the Type 14 and Type 94 Nambu designs, by a huge margin. However, there were a number of other handguns used in small numbers, and today we're looking at two of those. The first is the Sugiura, essentially a copy of the Colt 1903 made...
