Star PD .45acp Pistol

I had one in the 80's that I carried for a while as an off duty weapon and shot it quite a bit. Even then, finding the unitized recoil spring guide rod with integral buffer & recoil spring was getting to be iffy. Liked the little gun alot and stupidly traded it in for a stainless Officers ACP that was a complete ****. Today there are much better up to date options. I consider the 45 acp Shield a great modern non-1911 alternative.

I owned two at the same time. The later made ones had a slit in the frame above the squarish slide stop window. The early guns developed a crack in that spot that didn't affect anything, so it became a production feature.

Like I said I had 2 and a total of 8 mags. In the 90's I consolidated my 45's to use only 1911 or Sig 220 mags. I still agree with my decision, but do miss the PD's!

My guns both shot 230 Ball ammo and 230 grain SD ammo to the sights. I bought lots of Federal original Hydra-Shok ammo and still carry it. I down to my last 400 rounds! (When I reorganized my 45's they had to shoot this ammo to the sights too! I got rid of a total of 11 45 ACP autos!)

Ivan

Ivan

I too was looking for a PD but when I found a M&P Shield LNIB for $325, I went that way.
Surprisingly soft shooting and accurate for a small .45.
That’s not saying I would turn down a PD at a good price though

I'm a Shield 45 fan.

A friend carried one as the Chief of Detectives and thought very well of it.

I purchased a Star PD new back in 70?s (can it actually have been that long ago?) It was ok, IIRC it was hard to find a load that would shoot to the fixed sights.
Now, so many years down the road i'd pass on one one from a long-deceased company.
Lightweight carry?
My preference if you can find one:

TAROMAN said:

I purchased a Star PD new back in 70?s (can it actually have been that long ago?) It was ok, IIRC it was hard to find a load that would shoot to the fixed sights.
Now, so many years down the road i'd pass on one one from a long-deceased company.
Lightweight carry?
My preference if you can find one:

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What Model is this ?

I would not get myself involved with a weapon that I could not get readily serviced or find parts for. I have one plastic gun, and it is a Glock 36. I think 21 oz. unloaded IIRC. Shoots fine for its' intended range, and never a hiccup. Have a custom holster for it by C. Rusty Sherrick in PA

TAROMAN said:

I purchased a Star PD new back in 70?s (can it actually have been that long ago?) It was ok, IIRC it was hard to find a load that would shoot to the fixed sights.
Now, so many years down the road i'd pass on one one from a long-deceased company.
Lightweight carry?
My preference if you can find one:

Click to expand...

Mine has adjustable sights, thought they all did.

I was real hot for one of these back in the day when there was literally nothing that launched a .45 ACP that came even close to the size of this gun. I searched in vain, but this was also in the day before the internet and no LGS within my circuit ever had one.

Eventually Colt came to the rescue with the LW Officer's ACP. A used one turned up in my LGS and it came home with me. I have had this gun for decades. Unfortunately this little gun had its own set of issues. But that is a story for another day.

The idiot scratch was there when I bought it, by the way. I added the grips, the aluminum (instead of the original plastic trigger), the wood grips and the arched steel MSH instead of the plastic one that came on it. Probably put and ounce or two on it, but I do not do plastic.

I have had this thing for decades. It has seen a lot of use.

jimmyj said:

What Model is this ?

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Sorry, it's the 3953 DAO.

I always thought the Star PD sort of started the whole compact handgun scene.

Randy

jimmyj said:

In my advancing years CCW weight on my hip has become bothersome.
Years ago I had a Star PD .45 Pistol that IIRC (?) had a lightweight frame, thus was lighter to carry.

Has anyone had experence with this model ?

Opinions ?

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You say you ... "had" a Star PD ... as in it got away ...
It's going to cost you more today to replace it if you can find one .
I had a Star model PS 45 acp ... it was stolen in a break in and I still miss it . My buddy , a police officer at the time carried his PD as his back up ... he and I are both retired now and he still has the Star PD . He thinks highly of the Star PD , one of the few compact 45's at the time and I realy liked the Star PS ... it was almost like a Colt 1911 but didn't have a grip safety or a sliding trigger, it did have an exposed extractor and both were very accurate and well made .
Gary

growr said:

I always thought the Star PD sort of started the whole compact handgun scene.

Randy

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The Star PD was affordable. The Devell (sp) was a little smaller, but very pricey! They started what we think of as "Normal" size autos for CCW.

Ivan

Had a Star PD in the '70s-early '80s. That little puppy was quite accurate with surplus (cheap) 230 gr. hardball and I never had any problems even after a few thousand rounds.

The only things you had to watch for were the recoil spring and buffer. The buffer was no problem, as you could use a 1911 buffer, slightly reshaped (no big deal) and changed every thou rounds, or so. Never had to replace the recoil spring, but the last time I looked, Wolff had them in stock.

I like Stars, and regret having sold the PD kick, kick, kick!!! and looked for another one for years. Couldn't find one to save my life! However, around 20 years ago I ran across something in a small, rural gun store, coming back from a show, that just sucked my eyeballs to it. Lo and behold... a STAR!. It wasn't a PD, but a M45 Firestar! I was instantly in love...

To make a long story short, the Firestar ran circles around the PD, and any other .45 ACP that I've ever had, including 1911s. Pinpoint accurate and an absolute dream to shoot. However, remembering the PD, I immediately aquired 3 extra recoil springs from Wolff to tune it to various bullet weights. And... through the years I have aquired a few more Firestars, an M43 in 9mm, an M40 in .40 S&W (Starvel/nickle finish) and an M243 (Firestar Plus). I couldn't get used to the Firestar Plus, so that went down the road, but the M43 and the M40 were soon matched up with sets of Wolff springs, too. They are also very accurate and a dream to shoot. As a bonus, I found a source for factory mags a few years ago and bought 2 extras of each caliber at $15 each! Talk about luck...

Anyway, if you run across a Star, don't be shy about grabbing it. If you don't pound it to death with +P ammo you'll be just fine. And if you are worried about parts, most of them can be found fairly easily.

Hmmm, all these postings and no photo?

This is a later version with the squared off trigger. I'd have preferred the earlier type, but CA gunowners can't be picky -



Since smallish 1911s were posted, a 3" barreled Caspian someone put together and used a truly concealable size grip frame borrowed from Detonics.



Very well made, I wish it were an alloy frame. Would be the perfect CCW gun.

A friend of mine, also Jimmy, was always into offbeat guns. He really liked the Star PD. One day on the range he asked me to have a look at it. There was a crack in the frame above the slide stop hole. It still functioned but I convinced him it wasn't prudent to use it in that state.

He got a second one and the same thing happened. He didn't shoot the guns extensively either. It was for carry. I shot them and they were nice to shoot even though they we pretty lightweight. If you're interested in one, be sure to check the frame. it starts with a fine crack that progressively widens pretty quickly.

Star made some very well made pistols and the Star PD was one of them. As mentioned, out of production guns many times can't be supported with accessories/ parts. I'm more of a steel frame compact 1911 guy because I like to shoot them a lot.

That 'crack' in the Star PD frame and a lot of other Star frames is a relief cut the factory made in the frame thru the thin portion of the slide rail into the slide stop cut-out.

The frames did crack right there on their own before the factory started doing the relief cut.
Then some of them continued to crack thru the lower edge of the slide stop cut-out.
Flexing of the frame was occuring I guess. Especially on the Aluminum framed pistols.
The BK 9mm was prone to this.
Some of them even cracked on the other side (RH side) where the disconnector bar cut is milled into the frame farther back by the hammer.
I don't know of any thing that was done to prevent that issue.

The slide stop 'cut' is often seen as a frame crack when first observed by the pistols owner.
A clean straight cut with ample clearance is a factory done relief cut.



Earlier guns made before the factory placed the relief cut into standard production guns may show an actual crack.

I've seen some of these early guns with an extra aftermarket very small hole drilled through the frame just below and intersecting the bottom of the slide stop cut-out.
This attempting to halt any further cracking downward on the frame by giving a crack a flexing end point.
It's a common 'fix' to prevent cracks in things like semiauto shotguns recvr's from traveling any further than they already have.

The Star PD was the must-have CCW pistol back when.
Lots of L/E purchases. Most liked them
The last one I bought was a 'parts only' pistol that somene of questionable thinking and hands on ability had decided to make the PD even smaller than it was.
They had cut the frame grip length shorter, even too short for the main spring to work. Being alloy there was limited ways to make things whole again. Grips cut as well.
Of course the orig pricey magazine had already been shortened..
The top 1/2 was in tact so that was the valuable part.,,and I resold that easily.

The nicest Star in 45acp I've had was a Model PS. The 1911 lookalike.
Model P,,The 'S' signifys a magazine saftey on Star pistols.

An x- Guatemala Fed Police pistol in excl contition. A small lot was imported in the late 80's early 90's.
I was in my Star pistol accumulation phase back then.

A friend of mine had a Star PD that he shot quite often. It was an accurate little pistol.

One day at the range, we ran out of .45 ACP ammo. I went scrounging through my bag and found a dozen rounds that I had loaded with homecast Keith style 260 grain semi wadcutters for use in a 1917 S&W revolver. I figured we could load up the magazines and feed those rounds by hand. Nope, every one of those blunt nosed SWCs fed through the PD like they were FMJ round nose. We were both amazed.