Photos For some, the Holy Grail....

[RollingThunder51]

..

Semmerling fanatics will recognize some of these.

Here we have serial #1 LM1, serial #1 LM2, serial #1 LM3, serial #1 LM4, Serial #1 XLM.

XLM is fully self loading, threaded and built under contract. The smallest .45 automatic ever made. How rare? Off to the Smithsonian rare.

 

[Powder_Burns]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

That is a very neat collection you have there!

 

[Jthoss0837]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

Just read up on some of those pistols.
Very very nice collection.

 

[High Binder]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

Are those tarot cards?

 

[konabully]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Shot In The Dark</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Are those tarot cards? </div></div>

Looks like antique persian rug restoration photos to me.

Cool collection, Rolling-T.

 

[RollingThunder51]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

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Thanks, but the collection is not mine, I wanted to move the works of "Semmerling" to a national trust. Over 200 Semmerlings went to The Smithsonian, the National Firearms Museum, The Cody. Every drawing, all the tooling, all the machinery and all the accoutrements are all preserved now. Another remarkable and very generous American made it all possible. Took about a year to track it all down and work with the orgainzations to make it happen. Aside from the collection itself, what a complete blast to see the shop where all these incredible firearms were made....by one man. All a gift to the Nation.

No those are not tarot cards, those are shots of repairwork on oriental rugs.....a true twist to an astonishing story, genesis of the loom in "Wanted."


..

 

[Dsparil]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

w00t. Semmerlings!!! AND LOTS OF THEM! wow.

 

[High Binder]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RollingThunder51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">..



No those are not tarot cards, those are shots of repairwork on oriental rugs.....a true twist to an astonishing story, genesis of the loom in "Wanted."


.. </div></div>


Ah, I figured you used your voodoo maJic to get those guns. Sweet pic!

 

[LFOD1776]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

That is an amazing collection there. I have wondered, were any XLMs even made beyond that prototype? It appears there are THREE in that photo!

 

[RollingThunder51]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

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That table was just "1 serial" number models.

The XLM ws made under an Army contract for them exclusively. There are more of them out there. The XLM went throught four development iterations, all of them "automatic" self loaders.

The Semmerling isn't well understood, it was a backup gun and one hell of one. Still containing the fewest number of parts for a 5 shot, it was a "fail safe" design, it would go off every time. By the time the decision was made to make the original LM4 (a forward slide self loader) into an automatic, everybody knew that the piece would be an absolute bear to shoot. But that didn't stop the Army from wanting it. Some great features emerged, threaded barrel, slide lock for one round sub sonic suppressed silence, skeleton grip round indicator, an early variant of the "gutter snipe" sight system. The XLM had three complete magnaflux inspections during the construction of each and every piece. Every piece a machinists masterpiece. In the end? A BEAR to shoot! But tiny.

Here is another shot of just the XLM to give you a sense of the size, the width? 21.6mm, thats right a .45 in a 1" width. This one has the slide lock. The kid holding that piece was 12 or 13, the pistol is tiny.

 

[mlthoma]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

That's a fascinating story. As I understand it there were only 600 guns total before American Derringer started making theirs. Correct? Not very many are out there in collections then. I have a friend with an unfired, hard chrome LM4, purchased new with most of the available accessories. It must be a treasure then. Do you know how many of these guns were made with the hard chrome finish?

mike in abq

 

[Tigerbikes]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

Wow. Thanks for bringing this amazing little 45 ACP pistol to the attention of those, like me, who didn't know about it.

There are some great pictures of one for sale here. Maybe you can add it to the collection

.

They look incredibly well made.

 

[RollingThunder51]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

Mike, les than 20 were hard chromed. Awful nice action in the hard chrome. Are you sure it isn't an AMerican Derringer stainless model? If not, your buddy has a great one.

Tigerbikes, that auction is for a stainless one made by American Derringer. The rights to Semmerling were sold to them. While still available, though rare, the American Derringer piece has a very different feel to it. Stainless just doesn't do it justice IMO. The LM5 that American Derringer sells has nothing to do with anything that Semmerling ever built.

 

[Wjbmd]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

Unfortunately the one you mentioned for sale in not an original. Look closely and you will see this is one of the American Derringer take off models which have not been made of the same materials or in the same intricate manner, thus not the holy grail to those of us who own one.

 

[Wjbmd]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

I am the owner of the one pictured above. It is an original that I bought with all the extras and has remained in a gun safe since bought. I had no idea only 20 hard chrome were made, or of the number of guns given to the museum. How did you end up with 200 guns. Where these the remaining guns not sold, or did you contact original buyers to acquire them?

 

[Wjbmd]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

and the picture above i am referring to is Not the one for sale. Mine is the link in post by Mlthoma

 

[SuckitTrebek]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

That's wonderful.

Now lesson #1 is when handling fine and rare firearms to wear preferably white gloves so as not to get the oil from your hands all over the firearm.

 

[RollingThunder51]

Re: For some, the Holy Grail....

YMT, your supposed to use your hands? Oh.....

Wjbmd, you would really enjoy the National Firearm Museum and the Cody Collection. Try to get out to either and see what they have.

http://www.nramuseum.com/the-museum/the-...tic-pistol.aspx