[Vespers War]

And now for something completely...well, OK, it's a weird gun, and that's pretty much my oeuvre, so here we go...

How small can a gun be and still fire .45 ACP from a grip magazine? How about less than 4" overall length and about 1.25 pounds fully loaded. That's how small the Semmerling LM4 is. It's an odd duck, sacrificing everything for a combination of large cartridge and concealed carry. Originally intended for government use as a last-ditch concealed firearm, it never sold for that purpose, and around 600 made by Semmerling entered the civilian market before the tooling was sold. It's a striker-fired .45 ACP feeding from a 4-round magazine. There's no recoil system at all, and it's a manually operated autoloading pistol (I almost called it a manually operating semi-automatic, which would be oxymoronic).

After firing, the barrel is pulled forward. A projection on the left side of the barrel assembly strikes the fired cartridge and ejects it out the right side of the pistol. The next round is drawn forward out of the magazine and tipped upward; sliding the barrel back noses the round into the barrel and returns the gun to battery. The first part of the trigger pull causes a locking lever to seal the action.

In essence, it's a single-action pistol. Everything about it is dedicated to minimal size and high quality - other than the spring, all of the metal parts were S-7 tool steel, and each gun was X-rayed multiple times as part of the assembly process. The tooling was sold to American Derringer, which makes a stainless steel version rather than the original tool steel.

Semmerling LM4 (.45 ACP)
Wt 0.56 kg, ROF SAR*, Dam 2, Pen 1-Nil, Bulk 1, Mag 4, SS 6, Rng 19
*The gun reloads with a single action like an SA, but the manual ejection/reloading action reduces the rate of fire to that of a single-action revolver.

As a normal carry piece, it's terrible. As something small, concealable, and quick in close quarters, it's functional. The original Semmerling-produced tool steel ones should also be more resistant to wear due to the very high-quality materials and manufacturing process.