Prototype 9mm Clement Military Pistol
Prototype & Trials Weapons
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Charles Clement is best known for a series of civilian pocket pistol made in the years before World War One, but today we are looking at a prototype Clement military pistol from 1914. This gun retains most of the same mechanical features of Clement's pocket guns, but is scaled up to the 9x20mm Browning cartridge for potential military use. It is a shrouded-hammer, simple blowback action, with a single stack magazine and a quite long barrel (probably to complement the shoulder stock which it is cut to fit). Only two examples of these are known to exist today, and probably only about 15 were originally made. They were trialled by the Belgian military, but not adopted - probably in part because of the outbreak of World War One.
For much more information on Clement and his guns, I recommend this excellent collaborative article by Ed Buffaloe, Bill Chase,
Dr. Stefan Klein, and Dr. Dirk Ziesing
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