Kemen KM 4

Kemen is a relatively new name in the gun market. They first started to make their presence felt in the UK about 10 to 12 years ago.

Initially they were spotted and imported by Tony Kennedy, since then the Dealer network has spread and perhaps retracted a little. The main distributors in the UK are now Kelbrook Shooting Lodge, in Lancashire.

Kemen are, in Spain a fairly major gunmaking concern, producing in total approximately 300 to 350 guns every year.

They are different to many other makers in that they pride themselves in being able to make a gun exactly to the customers specification. Many others claim to offer this service, but sometimes it won't be quite as ordered. With Kemen, you get what you ask for. That said, Mike Meggison of Kelbrook, tells me that Kemen will offer very good advice, particularly on gun-fit, if they believe it will ultimately benefit the customer. And according to Mike, they have yet to get it wrong.

To gain a foot hold in the market and to make themselves a familiar name to the shooting public, they sponsored Geoge Digweed with a gun. Any gun shot to good effect by George has to be taken seriously.
Richard Faulds also shot a Kemen very well for a number of years in his run up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Since then many others have followed the Kemen path and the guns have built up a significant niche in their corner of the clay shooting market.

The guns are predominantly made to shoot clays and consequently are full weight guns, making full use of the slogan that weight reduces recoil. This is no detriment to the guns as their balance helps to hide the weight factor.

The gun owes a great deal of influence to Perazzi. In fact I believe it to be an open secret that this gun is a pretty fair copy of a Perazzi. I do not know what Perazzi's thoughts are on this, but my feeling is that it must be proof that imitation is certainly the greatest form of flattery.

I don't know whether it is true but I can remember hearing, when Kemen first arrived in this country that their barrels would interchange with that of Perazzi. If that is true then they certainly are close.
This particular gun is a sporter. At a glance, the gun is quite plain. Though that is definitely at first glance.
The action frame is finished black; as is all the visible metalwork. It is slightly matt. There is a practical aspect to this in that it does reduce glare. Though in this instance, I think it is more of a decorative feature.

The frame is nicely sculptured, with carved side panels and well rounded fences, which helps to break up the size and lack of engraving. This is not to say that the gun is devoid of any engraving at all. It has border lines and the centres of the hinge pin stubs are decorated with a rosette, as is the centre of the top lever spindle.

The action frame is low profile as is gained from having stub pins on which to hook the barrels. These stub pins are very wide and so give plenty of surface area for a long working life. The whole frame of the gun is strongly carved from a single block of steel and is very thick through the side walls to give maximum strength. Built into the inner walls of the action frame are flanges that form a circle to support the barrel lumps when the gun is closed.

The action of Kemen's are particularly tough, being hardened to Rockwell hardness of 38. this is harder than most other guns and should mean that wear is kept to a minimum.

Very secure lock up is provided by an H bolt that protrudes on each side of the breech face. This bolt engages with bites on the barrel lumps. The system as a whole is probably without equal in terms of making the gun secure when closed. But does inherently have bulk, which is of course the primary reason for the weight.

The gun has a drop out trigger mechanism, which fits very neatly into the bottom of the action frame. It is held in place by a spring loaded cross peg, with a small lever situated under the back of the trigger guard. The peg engages with a hole in the back of the frame. This is different to Perazzi, who use the safe button to release the trigger plate.

On this particular the gun the safe button itself has been secured forwards in the fire position.

This may be a feature for the clay purist, and most guns come through this way. Though they can easily be made so that the safe moves in a conventional way by simply removing a retaining pin.
The internal working parts of the gun are very well finished and polished silver.

The hammers are large and being powered by vee springs they will pack a large punch to the back of the firing pins.

Very neat bents or notches are cut into the hammers for the sears to engage. And as a result the gun has very crisp clean trigger pulls. Just the ticket on a full-blown competition gun.

Vee springs are usually associated with side by side guns rather than OU's, but they always give an OU a look of quality. It is true that if they break then that is the finish of play until the gun is repaired where as coil springs have just that little bit more reliability; rarely breaking and working over their entire length. But they just don't look as good.

The gun selects to fire the second by inertia from the first shot resetting. And on this gun the barrels will only fire under then over.

The barrels on this gun are 78cm long. That equates to a fraction under 31" in English.
To keep the weight in check and cooling to a maximum, both the side ribs and top rib are ventilated. The top rib is tapered from 10mm at the breech down to 6mm at the muzzle, and is cross-hatched with crescents to reduce reflection. Tapered ribs give a lovely sight pattern and make the barrel appear longer than it is to maximise it's pointing potential.

The barrels are built on the monblock principle, and have 70mm chambers. The barrels are extremely well struck up, and appear very true. Boring is also very good with the tubes shining perfectly; I am talking about roundness and concentricity here. The bores are not overbore size as such, but they are marked up at 18.7mm so should be comfortable. The bores are not chromed on this gun, so you can't be as relaxed about not cleaning it after a day's sport, but then you shouldn't be if you've just spent thick end of £3500 on your gun.

The chokes are Briley multi choke, and a set of 5 long tubes come with the gun.

Powerful extractors are directly spring loaded and work by being tripped from the forend iron.

Woodwork is of very good quality. And I have to say much better than I have seen on many Perazzi's for this sort of money.

It is a deep colour with good contrasting black figuring. And the forend matches the stock extremely well.
I particular like the forend shape on this gun. It is slim down to its end and is very comfortable to hold.
The stock looks bulky, but is actually very comfortable to hold.

Chequer pattern is good and enhance the look of the woodwork.

Dimensions are:
length of pull 14 3 / 4 " 375mm
drop at comb 35
drop at heel 55
cast off at toe 5mm

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