We have already repeatedly got acquainted with the Japanese weapons genius, and almost all weapons had interesting technical solutions that somehow affected their application, reliability, and efficiency. In this article, we will not break the tradition and get acquainted with another seemingly ordinary sample, but with a number of non-standard solutions that were very rarely used in other weapons. We will talk about the Type 64 assault rifle. True, it is not entirely correct to attribute this device to the class of assault rifles, since it does not use an intermediate cartridge, but the classification of not the most ordinary samples always has its own nuances and you can argue about the belonging of a weapon to a particular class for an infinitely long time without coming to a consensus.
In the middle of the twentieth century in Japan, the question of introducing a new class of weapons into the troops was very acute. The fact is that at this time almost all countries acquired weapons with the ability to conduct automatic fire under an intermediate cartridge, and Japan still used the M1. Naturally, such a lag could not but worry the Ministry of Defense, and imperial manners did not allow turning to other countries for support in this matter, and the financial side of such support was clearly not encouraging. The first to solve the problem was the well-known Nambu, but his influence apparently weakened, and the sample he proposed failed even in factory tests. It is even possible that Nambu would have created another masterpiece if he had time to finalize his sample, but he had better and faster competitors, so that another example of the gunsmith's out-of-the-box thinking remained only in the form of a crude prototype. In addition, there was one more nuance, which was the reluctance to establish a new production of ammunition, and since Japan did not have an intermediate cartridge that was mass-produced at that time, the designers were really faced with a very difficult task.
This task was handled by the gunsmiths of the Howa Machinery Company under the leadership of General Iwashito. The solution to the lack of an intermediate cartridge was the modernization of ammunition 7, 62x51. In the course of this modernization, a lighter bullet was developed for the cartridge, and the powder charge was also reduced. All this was necessary in order to reduce too much recoil of the ammunition, which did not allow comfortable and effective automatic fire without the use of bipods. Naturally, this decision completely changed the characteristics of the ammunition and not for the better, while the dimensions of the cartridge remained the same. If we consider this ammunition in comparison with common intermediate ones, then it showed the best characteristics both in armor-piercing and in direct firing distance, but it would be foolish to fire more than 700 meters.
Thus, the ammunition for the new machine gun (or is it still a light machine gun?) Was ready, its production was established and did not cause additional costs, the only thing left was to create a weapon. The appearance of the device, which turned out as a result of the work of the designers, turned out to be quite ordinary, without any unusual elements. The butt of the assault rifle was placed on the line of the barrel, and a return spring was placed in the butt itself, which made it difficult to create a variant of the weapon with a folding butt. In the process of creating the final sample, the designers solved many problems, mainly related to the ammunition that was used, but one problem remained unresolved for a very long time. This problem was the overheating of the chamber, which led to the involuntary ignition of gunpowder in the ammunition when fed into the chamber. The solution to this problem turned out to be very unusual, and I personally did not fully understand it. Many sources indicate that the weapon automatically changes its mode of operation when the chamber overheats. So, during automatic fire at normal chamber temperature, a shot is fired from a closed bolt, when the chamber overheats, a shot is fired from an open bolt. In general, I have no doubts that this is really possible to implement, but the reliability of such automatic switching raises a lot of questions, since such an outrage can be realized only on the basis of an increase in the volume of a heated body. In general, most likely the switching was done manually, but I will not insist.
By the way, about switching. Switching fire modes, as well as turning on the fuse, is carried out using a sufficiently large element that protrudes far beyond the limits of the weapon. Sights are represented by the whole diopter and front sight. The bolt handle is made in one piece with it and is located on top. I forgot to mention the most important thing: the automation of the weapon is built according to a scheme with the removal of powder gases from the barrel bore, the barrel bore is locked by a skewed bolt.
Despite the fact that during the design of this model, considerable attention was paid to ensuring that weapons and ammunition were relatively cheap, the Type 64 assault rifle is a very expensive weapon, since a lot of parts were milled, and the design of the assault rifle itself was such that it was fixed it is impossible, however, no one tried. The weight of the assault rifle is 4.4 kilograms, the total length is almost a meter with a barrel length of 450 millimeters. The device is powered by detachable box magazines with a capacity of 20 rounds.
