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Recently I received an inquiry from another watcher wanting to know if I knew anything about a rather obscure deep concealment pistol called Semmerling LM4. I said I knew a little about pistol but then it is one of the more obscure pistols made in recent times and finding reliable information on it is a trick.
While I was home the last few days being sick, and trying to distract myself from this I decided to look through my print and digital reference archives and see what I had on it. Not much.
A handful of so-so digital images and one four page article from a 2006 American Handgunner. Now AH often has beautiful, large Ichiro Nagata photos in it but not this article. I usually like to have six different angle views of the same object if I can not actually handle it myself but I was able to cobble together a top view along with both sides. Also due to the unique nature of this weapon I was very happy I had an okay image of the action open.
At first glance the Semmerling LM4 looks like a small semi-auto pistol. It is not. Instead it is a manually operated slide action. Sort of like a typical pump-action shotgun in reverse. This was done because it was the only way to make a repeater pistol this small that chambers more than two rounds of the iconic 45ACP. It is important to remember that this pistol only an inch bigger than a Seecamp LWS-32 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3937443 which is considered one a of benchmark designs for efficient, compact design in a firearm.
The LM4 was designed for deep concealment under extreme circumstances. Reliability and stopping power are paramount. Short of a knife or your bare fists it was your last line of defense. Since it was often carried into adverse conditions all materials used were chosen with an eye toward durability and corrosion resistance. Appearance be damned! This also means that for such a small pistol it is rather hefty in weight when loaded.
To operate the LM4 you cycle the slide forward and back with your thumb. This can be done with either hand, and apparently can be become second nature with a little practice. Five shots can apparently be fired in about five seconds. Hardly IPSC speeds but still fast.
The LM4 is a specialist weapon. It is not attended for casual plinking or target use, although they are surprisingly accurate for their primary mission. It is not meant to be a main carry weapon. It is intended to be issued and used as a last ditch backup weapon by specialists going into harms way. When your main weapon goes down or maybe even your first backup fails or is taken from you. When this is your last chance. This is what the LM4 is there for.
Since it was manufactured in only small numbers, possibly no more than 600, and even in the 1980s it often commanded prices in excess of $1,000 dollars they rarely come up for sale. Today they can fetch more than $2,500. In the five plus years of avidly surfing the web for firearm reference I have come across just one for sale. The people who pay a premium for these pistols do not get rid them. Also due to the nature of their work they are not prone to draw much attention to themselves or their equipment. When LM4's does become available for sale they are usually purchased by other "working professionals" and they again submerge into shadow world or security and covert Ops. Semmerling no longer makes the LM4 but the American Derringer Company ADC has purchased the rights to make them and lists them on their website http://www.amderringer.com/ as eventually being available in limited quantities. However they have had that notice up for several years and do not appear to have ever started true production. Although I have just done another web search and found one supposedly for sale that claims to be ADC made. Of course I don't think they've updated the ADC web site since 2001! Geezz!
While I was home the last few days being sick, and trying to distract myself from this I decided to look through my print and digital reference archives and see what I had on it. Not much.
A handful of so-so digital images and one four page article from a 2006 American Handgunner. Now AH often has beautiful, large Ichiro Nagata photos in it but not this article. I usually like to have six different angle views of the same object if I can not actually handle it myself but I was able to cobble together a top view along with both sides. Also due to the unique nature of this weapon I was very happy I had an okay image of the action open.
At first glance the Semmerling LM4 looks like a small semi-auto pistol. It is not. Instead it is a manually operated slide action. Sort of like a typical pump-action shotgun in reverse. This was done because it was the only way to make a repeater pistol this small that chambers more than two rounds of the iconic 45ACP. It is important to remember that this pistol only an inch bigger than a Seecamp LWS-32 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3937443 which is considered one a of benchmark designs for efficient, compact design in a firearm.
The LM4 was designed for deep concealment under extreme circumstances. Reliability and stopping power are paramount. Short of a knife or your bare fists it was your last line of defense. Since it was often carried into adverse conditions all materials used were chosen with an eye toward durability and corrosion resistance. Appearance be damned! This also means that for such a small pistol it is rather hefty in weight when loaded.
To operate the LM4 you cycle the slide forward and back with your thumb. This can be done with either hand, and apparently can be become second nature with a little practice. Five shots can apparently be fired in about five seconds. Hardly IPSC speeds but still fast.
The LM4 is a specialist weapon. It is not attended for casual plinking or target use, although they are surprisingly accurate for their primary mission. It is not meant to be a main carry weapon. It is intended to be issued and used as a last ditch backup weapon by specialists going into harms way. When your main weapon goes down or maybe even your first backup fails or is taken from you. When this is your last chance. This is what the LM4 is there for.
Since it was manufactured in only small numbers, possibly no more than 600, and even in the 1980s it often commanded prices in excess of $1,000 dollars they rarely come up for sale. Today they can fetch more than $2,500. In the five plus years of avidly surfing the web for firearm reference I have come across just one for sale. The people who pay a premium for these pistols do not get rid them. Also due to the nature of their work they are not prone to draw much attention to themselves or their equipment. When LM4's does become available for sale they are usually purchased by other "working professionals" and they again submerge into shadow world or security and covert Ops. Semmerling no longer makes the LM4 but the American Derringer Company ADC has purchased the rights to make them and lists them on their website http://www.amderringer.com/ as eventually being available in limited quantities. However they have had that notice up for several years and do not appear to have ever started true production. Although I have just done another web search and found one supposedly for sale that claims to be ADC made. Of course I don't think they've updated the ADC web site since 2001! Geezz!
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 617 x 1030px
File Size 68.9 kB
Believe it or not, I have actually seen, held and handled one of these: Rays Sporting Goods in Plainfield, NJ (long closed now), had one in their "used" display case for the longest time, with a price-tag of $1300 (this was back in the mid-90's). Ray's was the shop the local PD got a lot of their gear from, so it was probably a trade-in. My own interest in it sprang from Sonoda Kenichi's "Riding Bean" where it was the weapon-of-choice of the reversely-eponymous villainess Semmerling. It was such a curious gun, design and function-wise that when I happened upon it in the store, I just had to have a look-see. A very chunky, heavy and solid piece, as you noted. That era seemed to have spawned quite a number of very small, very finely crafted and very potent backup guns, like the Semmerling, COP357, and AMT Backup .45 .
And speaking of the sort of folks who used the Semmerling, check this out: http://www.furaffinity.net/full/4354037/ ... I'm sure with the intended attachment it was a little more difficult to work the slide, but sub-sonic rounds in a locked-breech design ....
And speaking of the sort of folks who used the Semmerling, check this out: http://www.furaffinity.net/full/4354037/ ... I'm sure with the intended attachment it was a little more difficult to work the slide, but sub-sonic rounds in a locked-breech design ....
By the way I have handled a COP and yeah they do have a real solid no nonsense quality to them. The only difference is the the COP has an overall thicker profile to it. Also it's accuracy is apparently more in line with what people think of in bellyguns; whereas the LM4 apparently quite accurate for its size and role. Still the four muzzles on a COP must make for quite a presence attack!!
I replaced it with an AMT backup .45. This gun was brutal and damaging... to the firer. It was nigh impossible to shoot without bloodying my hand, either from the sharp corners of the slide or by the web of my hand being grabbed as the slide came back forward. I think I sold it to one of Cigarskunk's friends.
Now I did fire a AMT Backup 45 once and yeah it was zero fun. Funny thing is that my Para-Ordnance P-10 is very well behaved although it weighs about the same. Question. Do you know what the deal is with the exposed trigger linkage on the right side of the frame? Seems like a gem dandy way for crap and stuff to get into the action.
There's no room to run it thru the frame. The double action .380 models have the same problem. Those pocket guns need to be in holsters; that's all there is to it. I actually recently sold my single-action AMT backup, which is really nothing more than a scaled up baby Browning.
Well it has a maximum capacity of 5 rounds so accept for extended periods of practice when you might want to wear shooting gloves anyways due to recoil its probably not to big of a problem. In real life situations when you'd be using the LM4 I imagine you'd be too distracted to notice it.
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