A fine collection. No question where your cartridge loyalties lie, eh?

I always thought the Semmerlings were a neat concept. Sure makes for a compact package. If I ever blunder across one of those for a reasonable price, it WILL be mine, just for the novelty of the action, if nothing else. Was the other barrel shot-out, or was there another reason you needed to replace it?

Good looking group you have there Steve.

Very nice. Thanks for sharing and I especially like your personalized grips.

Originally Posted by DJ Niner

A fine collection. No question where your cartridge loyalties lie, eh?

I always thought the Semmerlings were a neat concept. Sure makes for a compact package. If I ever blunder across one of those for a reasonable price, it WILL be mine, just for the novelty of the action, if nothing else. Was the other barrel shot-out, or was there another reason you needed to replace it?

The Semmerling LM-4 is a very delicate pistol which tolerates neither dirt nor tolerance stacking.
Mine's original barrel was just made a touch off to one side. As it was used, the barrel's slide tracks must've worn unevenly (due to the way it feeds), which finally cause it to hit primers too far off center to give consistent ignition. Its new barrel is dead on center.
Because the firing pin is powered and retracted by a very delicately-balanced pair of springs, an off-center hit was never enough to reliably fire a shot. Further, pocket lint that migrated into the firing-pin channel destructively interfered with ignition because of that delicate spring balance, so the damn' thing had to be detail-stripped daily. After about the third iteration, this is not fun.
Inside the gun, the parts are like those of a Swiss watch: tiny and spring-loaded. Disassembly is best done within a large plastic bag, because springs are going to fly. (I made that mistake early on, and spent the better part of an hour on my hands and knees, looking through the unswept dirt on my shop's floor.)
The good news is that the American Derringer Corp. has all the Semmerling tooling, and can make you a brand new one. The bad news is that it'll cost about $5,000.00.