CHEAP GUN THREAD: Star BM 9mm.

[Old Corp]

Five or six years back I obtained a Star Super B to sort of scratch my itch for a M1911 in 9mm. I know, it's not - but the price made it close enough.
Enjoyed it, shot well with both FMJ and JHP ammo.

Sold it off after a year or so to help fund purchase of a neat used Colt Commander 9mm. I'd finally got a real M1911 in that caliber.

Guess what? - The Colt is not as accurate as the Star was. Not even close.

 

[Arik]

We don't need to argue with "him".

Amen, brother.

Once upon a time Uncle Sam's Canoe Club wanted me to go to Nuke School, and I used to see a lot of nuke subs while stationed on Guam and Oahu. So let me tell ya all about subs and reactors...

I have owned Astras, Llamas and Stars, even a couple Spanish side-by-side shotguns. I still own and shoot a few Firestars and would never give them up. Guns of any make have their quota of lemons, and you only hear of them when they have a hiccup. I've had my share of them, including S&W, Colt, Dan Wesson, Ruger and others. Do any of those breeds deserve universal condemnation? Hardly.

Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but quite often opinions are based on "I know a guy who had one, and he said...", not on extensive familiarity with any particular gun, or make, in question.

I have never owned a Star BM, but have shot a few owned by a now deceased friend. They were solid, reliable and fairly accurate.

Enjoy your new purchase.

You know you can use my name. Don't beat around the bush!

We don't need to argue with "him".

He has issues with many firearms that are OK at least, and very great at most. He hates "hacked" CAI firearms, but claims to have bought most of them. "ALL were junk". I don't think I would have bought a second, third, fourth, .... etc if the first was that bad. :roll eyes:

Astra's, (Spanish,) are another very excellent firearm, some going for a lot of money in the collector world. I really like my Colt JR's, made by Astra, and they are not going down in value.

Jim

Go re read my posts. I have issues with CAI MADE guns, not imported. I guess you never heard of them using 556 barrels for 5.45 rifles and refusing to fix or refund. Nor the gas issues with the MAS rifles when chopped. Nor the forcing headspace on CETME rifles. Here's a newer one. Go take a look at their $750 AK. Headspace fails around 2000 rounds. Multiple rifles tested on video. Locking lugs failing before 2000 rounds. But sure I always look for the ....."but I got a good one!"

Quotas of lemons. Sure!


And I'm pretty sure Sig understood what I meant

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[GT_80]

I figured I'd class up the place a little.

These are all over the place now for about 230 bucks. I traded for this one, so I have a whopping 100 bucks in it. Either way = cheap gun.

Here's what you get - box, Spanish language manual, pistola, one mag, cleaning rod:

Its a chunky little booger. All steel. Pretty 1911ish, with obvious differences.

External extractor, and crop circles where some kind of marks were removed:

Barrel bushing:

It comes apart more like a Hi-Power. The safety locks into a notch and the slide stop pushes out. Still has the swinging link, though.

No grip safety. The thumb safety is big and works great. It is also makes a loud noise when it is taken off - it sounds like something inside whaps against the inside of the plastic grip. It has a magazine disconnect, and a full-length guide rod.

Century imported this one, and made sure everyone in a three block radius knows it with some prominent markings on the slide and a new serial number.

The sights are fixed and about like regular 1911 sights. The trigger pivots from the top, but it doesn't feel strange.

Best of all, they thoughtfully included my initials:

I just picked it up today. I'm off to the range tomorrow. My first impressions are that it is a very solid, all steel, mostly 1911, 9mm.

Very cool! Very 1911 Ish. I would be proud to own one of those.

 

[Ozark Marine]

Almost bought one of those Star BM's from Classic last week.
Only coming with 1 mag I wanted a couple more mags but seems the spare mags Classic had sold out fast at $19.99.
Looked online and the cheapest I found was $30.00 and up plus shipping.
Bought the Zastava instead.

 

[cporfe]

Shooter grade from AIM

I bought a shooter grade to keep the price down. Finish wear and some rust. Not too bad for what I wanted. Two extra surplus mags also. One magazine needed a little filing on the knotch to make it lock in the gun. Easy fix. This past weekend I put 50 rounds of Winchester Ranger 147 grain SXT through it at the NRA indoor range. Zero hiccups. I feel I got an excellent value. But, it shoots about 6 inches high at 25 yards. Who cares?!! Kentucky aiming works for a range gun just fine.

 

[Steve912]

I feel I got an excellent value. But, it shoots about 6 inches high at 25 yards. Who cares?!! Kentucky aiming works for a range gun just fine.

Bet she'll come down a coupla three inches, if you try 115 or
124 gr...

 

[292]

I have a B Super that belonged to my Dad. The only problems are a broken takedown lever and the slide doesn't lock back after the last round on 1 of the 2 magazines. Very good shooter even with the broken part.

 

[2152hq]

The 'crop circles' are blanked out Property Markings of the Spanish Civil Guard. The agency where these latest,,and most of the Model BM pistols have come from.
On this bunch the Guardia Civil decided they didn't want their markings left on the pistols when they sold them, so off they came. Prior batches a few years ago have them in tact.

Most BM Model (and Model A, B, S, I ect) don't have a rebounding firing pin. The pin protrudes from the face of the breech when the hammer is down.
Not safe to carry these with a round in the chamber and the hammer all the way down. A dropped gun or any bump to the hammer will usually fire the weapon.
There is a half cock,,but like most half cock placements, they are not a safety notch. Just to catch the hammer if it falls from full cock for some reason.
So these pistols are designed to be carried loaded in chamber, hammer at full cock and safety on. OR chamber unloaded.

Some of the last of the BM production switched over to a rebounding firing pin as in the 1911 Colt. These are safe to carry with a round in the chamber and the hammer down.

To check for either,,simply pull the slide back and locked.
Then push the back of the firing pin in till it's flush with the slide surface. It's under spring pressure in either system, but easily pushed inward.
While held flush at the back, see if the tip of the pin protrudes from the breech face ,,or not.
If it does,,it's the early style--not safe to carry loaded and hammer down
If the pin tip is still inside the breech face,,it's the later style rebounding firing pin and safe to carry loaded chamber w/hammer down.

The safety should work with just the thumb movement and in doing so should slightly cam the hammer back off of the sear. You can see the hammer move back a tiny amt as the safety engages.
If you have to use your other hand to pull the hammer back a bit in order to engage the thumb safety,,the safety isactually worn and not in good order. However,,this latter condition is so very common on STAR pistols that many believe it is the normal operation.

With the slide off of the frame,,do not move the thumb safety lever upwards for any reason (unless you are completely disassembling the pistol).
In doing so, a small spring loaded plunger right behind the thumb safety will shoot out of it's captive position and into the great beyond.
More than a few owners have found out the hard way what's behind that lever and what makes it click.
It comes out like a shot,,'You'll put your eye out kid' if you're in the right position. No joke.

MAgazine safety on these is easily removed.
Take the grips off.
On the right side along the back edge of the frame up and down is a long flat spring. That is the magazine safety.
The upper portion has a small arm that is pushed aside by the magazine insertion. That inturn pushes the entire spring away from the trigger bar just above it and allows the pistol to function.
Removing this simply removes the trigger block.

The mag safety spring is held in the frame by a pin attached to the lower end of it that transverses the frame.
On the left side you can see the end of that pin. Simply push the pin out to the right and it with the magazine spring attached will drop out of the frame. All one piece.
Usually you doen't even need a hammer, just push out w/a punch.
Put the grips back on and that's it.

 

[robertrwalsh]

My experience with Star pistols (I have owned three I think) is that they are solid and well built, if a bit heavy and clunky, with one exception. I did own a .40 Caliber Firestar which fit my hand well but did not hold up to the pounding of the .40 round. Probably would have done fine in 9mm.

 

[old tanker]

A Star BM. My nephew got one... and so...

Just a nice size and weight for a 9mm pistol. Shoots good and it's not plastic.

I gave my opinion in another post when I got it. It's a well made pistol. A couple hundred rounds of WWB later, I still like mine.

 

[bulletslap]

Star and Astra handguns are good solid handguns in my experience, especially Astra.

Llama and the others are hit or miss.

 

[scoobysnacker]

I have a B Super, a 30MI, and now a BM like the OP's. I bought my BM from gunprodeals (or something like that), came complete and with 2 mags, $237 shipped. It's a nice gun for any price, and excellent for the price it was.

Arik mentions Eibar and QC issues; if you dig around the internet some, that goes back to the Ruby pistols being made for WW1. At that time France ordered a gazillion of those, the bigger makers couldn't fill that, and so everybody and their brother got in on the act. Some Ruby's are decent, some are absolute ****.

This issue doesn't apply to Star or Astra post Spanish Civil War. Those are well-made guns from manufacturers as respected as any in Europe at the time. The bigger issue with those are that the Spanish used the Largo rd, which doesn't mesh with 9x19 Parabellum. That turned out to be the rd that survived, so the 9mm Largo guns became a bit obscure.

A second issue- Star made the Model B for 9x19 for the Axis powers; the bulk of these were seized by the Soviets as they took eastern Europe. They then stripped the guns down, put all the parts in bins, did a quick factory refurbish and refinish, and piecemeal reassembled the pistols. This resulted in guns with parts not correctly fitted (most Stars of the time still needed to have parts fit to them). As has been mentioned several times online, getting a competent gunsmith to fit some parts correctly solves all those issues.

The Ruby and the Russian-stock surplus are the Stars most people were familiar with, so they judged the guns to be iffy.

It didn't help that Spain was fascist for awhile, and outside the normal realm of US contacts, so we didn't get much from them until after they changed.

The Star B Supers were made after WW2, so they never fell into the Russian storage, and mine (and everyone I've ever heard comment on one) runs great.
The BM was specified for the national Spanish Police, it also seems to run great.
Both these models have brittle firing pins, simply don't dry-fire without a snap cap and you should be good.

I read that the BM was replaced by the Star 30M, and then by the Beretta 92, for higher capacity. One former member posted on a gun forum that the CG officers he served with preferred the 30M to the Beretta, despite the increased weight.The one I own is certainly a heavy gun, but it's also a very accurate shooter. In comparing to the Beretta 92FS I own, I could see the 2 guns are pretty comparable, and I certainly wouldn't feel like I got a raw deal with either one. The 30M does not have the firing pin issue, has an internal slide rail setup like the CZ 75, and if you remove the mag safety you can run S&W 59xx mags through it.

Star and Astra didn't collapse due to poor guns, they were caught up in an economic mess that the whole country went through. They didn't have the international contracts that sustained Beretta and Sig, and just couldn't afford to keep the doors open.

 

[jframejoey]

Need to get one some day. Had a near mint Star PD in .45 with adjustable rear sight I wish I still had.

 

[sigp220.45]

I put 120 rounds through it today, 70 Wally World 115 grain ball and 50 Winchester 124 grain FMJ marked NATO +P.

Twice it locked back with one round still in the magazine with the +P, no issues with 115 grain stuff.

It shot to the left at 50 feet, the max length at the indoor range. I could feel the hammer touch the web of my hand, but not enough to leave a mark.

I took out the magazine disconnect just so the mags would drop free. That took about two minutes.

I like it. The two words I would use to describe it are solid and serviceable. The grips feel slick to me, so I put on a Hogue slip on thingy. I'll give the rear sight a couple whacks to the right, and I shold be good to go.

 

[Texas Star]

Fans of Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise novels and the comic strip may recall that Modesty had a Star PD .45 as her main handgun after stepping up from an unspecified model of Colt .32 that I decided was probably a Cobra or Detective Spcl. with three-inch barrel. That helped me to visualize her as I read. Used a S&W .41 Magnum, prob. M-57, on occasion, as did a villain or two. Another villain had a S&W Bodyguard .38 and one had a S&W 9mm, maybe M-59. I forgot if the author noted a model.

I think Modesty was the only fictional hero/heroine who used a Star pistol, and a French MAB .25 at times.

But a real hero used a Model B or BS. A South African captain whose armored car had run dry of ammo for both the main gun and the machine guns used his Star 9mm to shoot Cuban troops off the vehicle until reinforcements arrived. His crew had been in one heck of a battle in Angola against commie native troops and Cubans. He received the Honoris Crux, Cross of Honor, for his valor.

I had a Model B briefly and it worked fine & was quite accurate. It was a late commercial example on loan from Interarms, the importer. On field stripping it, I was alarmed to see that someone had scratched crude X marks under the slide! Looked like they'd used a nail.

I returned the gun, declining to review it. (I was then a gun writer.)

I later read that those marks were common, and were the crude means of testing slide hardness.. But I don't know if the marks meant the gun had passed or not. Has anyone here seen such marks inside a Star pistol?

Oh: the slide was turning a plum color, which I hate.

I think Star arms are okay if you get a good one. I'd like to have a Modelo S .380. The grip was copied from Remington's old Model 51 and feels wonderful in the hand. It's large for a .380, but still easily concealed.

Oh: besides the Guardia Civil, I read the Spanish Navy used Modelo BM. I don't know about the Cuerpo General de Policia.

 

[Texas Star]

I put 120 rounds through it today, 70 Wally World 115 grain ball and 50 Winchester 124 grain FMJ marked NATO +P.

Twice it locked back with one round still in the magazine with the +P, no issues with 115 grain stuff.

It shot to the left at 50 feet, the max length at the indoor range. I could feel the hammer touch the web of my hand, but not enough to leave a mark.

I took out the magazine disconnect just so the mags would drop free. That took about two minutes.

I like it. The two words I would use to describe it are solid and serviceable. The grips feel slick to me, so I put on a Hogue slip on thingy. I'll give the rear sight a couple whacks to the right, and I shold be good to go.

Might want to check it with good JHP ammo before carrying it.
However, my son found NATO FMJ to work better in Iraq than some gun writers say it will, and David W. Arnold, who'd been a senior cop in then-Rhodesia during the terrorist days, told me that 9mm ball worked well, most of the time. As ever, placement matters a lot. David preferred the Colt .45 auto, but carried an issued P-38 on duty. I think the P-38's were used as they could be imported despite the UN ban on arms for Rhodesia and South Africa in those days. Many Beretta and Star pistols also evaded the embargo, somehow. And South Africa copied the Beretta M-92 as their Z-88. They are said to be very good guns, but never sold here.

Thanks for the photo. As soon as you tap the rear sight, it should be a good gun.

 

[ralph7]

I have and have had Star PD's and BM's, the nickel ones I stupidly sold or traded, but I still have one of each in blue.
They both are excellent guns, the only putoff is that I hear parts are scarce, although I haven't had any breakage problems.

The model BM fits my hand better than any other pistol I have owned. It feels absolutely perfect to me.

 

[2152hq]

The 'scratched crude X marks' on the underside of the slide are assembly marks. You will find a matching set inside the frame when the gun is apart. Usually on a couple of the smaller parts of the pistol that are also fitted parts. The slide stops and thumb safetys often have the matching numbers on them on the back side of the part.

They are applied sometimes as you saw by simply scratching them in with an awl. Many are stabbed in with a sharp, narrow flat blade punch (think wood chisel shape).
The system is an easy one. It uses Roman Numeral figures I, V, X.
The figures are simple, quick and easy to form especially with the flat blade chisel type punch.

The figures are not necessarily combined in proper Roman Numeral order to form numbers. They are just used in a group of usually 3 or 4 figures as an assembly 'number'.
That number comes from a master parts tray or box that the particular pistol & it's parts are kept together on as it goes through the mfg process.

When the frame & slide or other fitted part(s) are removed from the tray for any reason (polishing, heat-treat, roll-marking, ect),,the parts can be easily returned to their other mated small parts by way of the matching assembly number on them and the tray they came from.

This is an old system. It was used when the Spanish arms mfg trade was a true cottage industry. It kept things sorted out as the guns went from place to place for different mfg processes.
The system was simple. It needed to be. It could be used by most anyone even if they did not know how to read.
Just match the symbols and do your job.

It was used and can be found on Llama pistols as well. Some of the early Astra's
as well as the mind boggling field of 25 and 32 pistols and even revolvers from the early 20th century.
Spanish long guns have them too. Even then nicely made SxS's and O/U shotguns will display the marks inside at times.
Old school workers working on classic guns in classic fashion.

The system was also used in other trades such as wood work and leather.
You find it on the backs of pistol grips out of Mexico and the SW USA. The Spanish heritage link to the artists simply brought the method with them.

It works and it works well.
As they say.. no special tools or abilitys needed to use.

 

[zeke]

Years ago purchased a Star BKM (alloy frame version). Very nice functional pistol for the price, and fun to shoot. Had to adjust the sights for elevation and windage. If clamping slide in vice to drift rear sight, BE CAREFUL and aware how thin the slide is in spots. Could never find any more original mags for any reasonable price. Even the aftermarket ones were harder to find. Then this batch came in, and swooped very quickly on cheap original mags. Those mags would have sold out quick at 3x the price.

IMo, can't beat these for the price if you like slim all metal guns.

 

[TomkinsSP]

Oh: besides the Guardia Civil, I read the Spanish Navy used Modelo BM. I don't know about the Cuerpo General de Policia.

I had a concecutive numbered pair from Peru. (Guardia-Gendarmarie?) Some other SA army-navy-police forces owned them as well.