Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we are taking a look
at a very rare, Uruguayan,
Celmi Brothers pistol, or Celmi Hermanos.
... Well, there's very little information about this, this is a Model of 1943.
And we know that production started during World War Two and continued into the 1950s.
We know that the Celmi brothers were originally Italian in birth,
moved to Uruguay, specifically Montevideo, where they set up an arms factory.
And they manufactured pistols as well as shotguns,
and according to rumour, also maybe tried to design
a machine gun for the military that didn't go anywhere.
Probably much better known for their shotguns and commercial arms.
But they did make a batch of semi-auto blowback pistols, really very similar to the Walther PP.
Now these were made in a couple of different calibres, this particular one is in .32.
But as far as I can tell they definitely also made them in .380,
and they might have made them in .22 rimfire as well, that's a little hazy.
Anyway, let's go ahead and take a closer look at this thing, and I'll show you how it comes apart.
And we'll just compare it to a Walther so you can kind of get a size idea.
What we have is really the same basic form factor as a lot of other hammer-fired pocket pistols.
In fact, to put it in proper comparison,
here is a Walther PP. So this is a standard sized Walther.
You can see that the Celmi is a little bit bigger in all dimensions.
A lot of the features are a little chunkier, the ... hammer is bigger.
The sights on the Celmi are bigger than on the Walther.
In particular, the grips are quite a lot thicker.
And the Walther in the hand feels kind of small,
the Celmi actually fills the hand really pretty nicely.
I suspect this would be a very pleasant, comfortable gun to shoot.
This particular one is in .32 ACP (or 7.65 Browning).
We have a heel magazine release, which some of the Walthers did.
And in fact this is put together more or less like a Walther,
a little bit more like an FN 1910 because it has a detachable barrel bushing,
but we'll get to disassembly in a moment.
First let's take a look at the markings here, we have this roll stamp on the side.
... First off, I think this was a stamp that was rather lightly applied at the left end,
because I think this originally said "p-i-s-t" for Pistol Automatic, Celmi, Calibre 7.65.
There's a patent number which I have not found in the Uruguayan patent archives,
but perhaps someone else has access to that.
These were manufactured in Montevideo.
And the only other marking on it is a serial number on the bottom of the grip frame.
So this is number 173. I have no idea what total production was,
or where these serial numbers started.
The magazine looks a bit Beretta like, or actually almost a bit Makarov like,
although the Makarov didn't exist when this was made.
Got a nice little finger rest. I expect this holds 8 rounds of .32 ACP.
It's also otherwise unmarked.
For controls we have that heel magazine release, which is nice and big and easily used.
We have a safety here. This is a single action only pistol.
It does not have a de-cocker, it just has a hammer-block safety.
So when that rotates up the hammer can still drop,
but it hits that safety block instead of hitting the firing pin.
That's in marked contrast to the Walther, which has a very similar looking safety,
but on the Walther this actually functions as a de-cocker.
On the Walther disassembly is done by pulling the whole trigger guard down.
The Celmi here has a trigger guard that is a separate component, similar to the Walther,
however it has a separate disassembly lever, right here.
And honestly I kind of like that design, that's to me feels a little bit easier to use than the Walther.
Now, we also have this barrel bushing at the front.
And like an FN 1910, if I push that in and rotate it 90 degrees, I can pull the barrel bushing out.
It's a pretty unique design. It's got this knurling on the surface,
so it's actually very easy to grab and push and rotate and work with,
unlike some of the FN 1910-style guns.
Then pull out our recoil spring.
With the spring removed, disassembly is really easy.
You just pull the lever down, and pull the slide all the way back to there,
lift up, and off the front.
This has a fixed barrel of course, because it's a simple blowback pistol.
The recoil spring would normally sit right there over the barrel.
There's really not much else going on there.
You can see the trigger bar, now that the slide is off.
And that's just going to drop a simple single-action hammer assembly.
Inside the slide we actually kind of still have nothing particularly exotic.
There's a spring-loaded firing pin,
sticks out the back right there.
And of course the hammer block safety, which rotates in the way.
And the sight picture on this is actually decent, it's a little better than the Walther.
Still a bit on the small side, but you have a U-notch rear sight there, and a little square front post.
Production of these began during World War Two, '43 or maybe '44.
And the quality was pretty sketchy at that point,
raw materials were very difficult to come by.
Apparently there were some aluminium framed versions
that were actually cast by a local ... metal pot shop that did cookware,
and they are not very good frames.
However, the Celmi gunsmiths were quite talented,
and so a lot of the problems of materials and early rough forgings and castings,
a lot of that was cleaned up effectively by the Celmi Brothers and their gunsmiths.
And so the final pistols are reasonably good quality,
but that meant you can't be making all that many of them.
So production was limited. It did continue into the 1950s.
Apparently the Uruguayan state oil company
did actually purchase some of these pistols for its security guards.
But by the end of the 1950s the company seems to have kind of faded into obscurity.
And, as I said at the beginning, information in general on this company
is really scarce and hard to come by.
So, this is the only Celmi pistol I have ever seen myself.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed having a chance to take a look at it.
If you know about more of these, if you have one of these,
I'd love to hear about it - calibre, configuration, serial number.
If we can find out more about a variety of these pistols, it'll help us understand more about them.
Thanks for watching.