Star BM 9mm?

Trooper224 said:

They were a solid option when very few options existed. Spare parts can be hard to find if the need arises, so keep that in mind if you're inclined to shot it on the regular. But, as an occasional range gun or a just because gun, there's no downside.

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I will probably just put a mag or two through it then sell or trade. I may keep the Beretta.32; not sure. I can probably sell the two individually for what I can sell the firearm I’m trading.

I don't own one, but I have read this thread completely and so far...

They work with JHPs

They don't work with JHPs

You can easily find parts

You can't easily find parts

They were cheaper when everything else in America was cheaper

They're no longer as cheap as when everything else was cheaper

Some bought multiples

Some didn't buy multiples

Everyone wished they'd bought multiples

IMO not much downside, not talking a $2,000 investment even if prices have gone up. Was in service with Spain's military and police for a good 20+ years, all steel fame, compact/medium size single stack 9mm for concealed carry, along the lines of the German/Swiss Sig P-6/P-225 police pistols. Just don't expect to pick up parts at your local convenience store, parts are available from the normal sources.

FWIW, even though I now wish I had bought one when they were in every gun case in town for <$200, hindsight is always 20/20.
My main reason for NOT buying one back then was that I already own one of their M43 Firestar single-stack 9mm pistols.
Pretty close to an even more compact version of the same thing. The Firestar is one heavy little pistol for its size, and as a result it shoots surprisingly soft for such a compact 9mm.

A solid, very well made gun that can still be found for a reasonable price. I have owned several, never had any issues with any of them. I have traded a few off just because there was something else I really wanted but I am guilty of doing that rather more often than I should be LOL. Currently have one in the safe, a good shooter that has been very reliable.

As police trade ins some are in better shape than others but mostly the difference has been finish wear that I've seen. The importers did sort through them, at least a couple dealers have offered "gunsmith specials" that needed repair but those are more for the hobbyist tinkerer. Ones sold as functional guns, in my experience, have been a good buy.

Solid, reliable, easy shooting, sights are so-so like a lot of military 1911 clones. I'd buy one.

I always thought they were great pistols, especially for the cost. Although I don't have one anymore I can't remember any issues with any of them. The last one I had was a BKM, the alum frame one...wish I had kept that one.

Great guns that work and feel fantastic, but brittle firing pins (I can think of at least two friends who broke theirs dry firing, and that was when parts were available).

Erich said:

Great guns that work and feel fantastic, but brittle firing pins (I can think of at least two friends who broke theirs dry firing, and that was when parts were available).

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A couple thoughts on this.

Parts that need to be tough and hard are often face hardened, so that they have harder wearing surfaces while still retaining a softer, tougher steel core.

You often see that in fire control parts such as hammers, sears and various parts of a de-cocking system.

The thing to keep in mind is that face hardening changes the crystalline structure of the steel on the surface. Over time, and with repeated impacts that harder outer crystalline structure starts to migrate deeper into the part, making it increasingly brittle.

Firing pins can be hardened steel that tend to be comparatively brittle from the start, or hardened on the pointy end. Either way, dry firing is a bad idea.

(In some designs the firing pin’s forward motion is regarded by a pin and in less expensive designs it is often a roll pin. If the pin is not re-installed after cleaning, damage to the firing pin can occur.

In rimfire firearms like the Ruger Mk I-IV pistols if that pin is left out a single dry fire will put a significant divot in the barrel face that can prevent a round from feeding into the chamber as the metal is displaced.

Consequently I don’t recommend any firearm be dry fired without using a snap cap.)

One example of embrittlement is how the fire control parts on Walther PP pistols (first made in 1929) and PPK pistols (first made in 1931) become increasingly prone to parts breakage due to both age and the increasing number of times they have been de-cocked.

Even the more modern PPK/S pistols still have examples that are now are over 50 years old. Consequently, many PP series pistol owners manually lower the hammer when decocking them o both slow the progressive hardening of fire control parts and reduce the potential of breaking a part.

Even newer designs can suffer from this issue. A friend of mine who spent his career as a military armorer was asked to look into a high occurrence of parts breakage in M9 pistols that had comparatively low round counts.

He found they were breaking due to being brittle and when he starred looking at the units and histories of these pistols he found they were pistols that were function tested on a regular, daily or even multiple times per day basis. The function check involves racking the slide, dry firing and decocking the pistol, with a total of three dry fires, two hammer falls when the slide is racked with the safety lever in the safe (decock) position, and with the pistol being de- cocked one additional time. Plus of course loading and decocking if the pistol is then loaded.

In training units this process would be repeated countless times.

In other units where the pistol was checked out and carried, it would usually be function checked by the armorer before issuing it, by the user when accepting it, and then again by the armorer when it was returned at the end of the duty cycle.. In some cases the pistols issued daily were those closest to the door or window, so the same pistols saw use day after day.

In short, the US Army was function testing these pistols to the point of breaking them. The US military made it worse by not rotating these pistols within units, between units and even between service to spread the function checks evenly across the entire inventory of M9s.

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Personally, I manually hold and lower the hammer whenever I de cock a decocker equipped pistol. If the hammer slips the de docking feature will still prevent an ND, but frankly, I’ve never had one slip on an SA/DA, DAO or SAO pistol.

I recommend never dry-firing any firearm.
That comes from doing a lot of FP repairs over the years that the owner admitted they 'were just dry firing and the FP broke'.

Some can take it,,some can't. Some are designed and made of better matr'ls than others. They all have a limit somewhere out there.

The RF firing pins are supposed to be fitted so that the max protrusion leaves the tip of the pin just short of touching the chamber /chamber rim.
.003/.004" is good.
That so the burr/divot isn't turned up on the edge of the RF chamber by the FP striking it in dryfire. It also helps during live fire as the firing pin does not need to actually touch the chamber/chamber rim to ignite the primer in the rim. It just needs to crush the rim.

Some RF's use only a small dia pin to limit the travel. Others a substantial dia pin and a shoulder as well.
Even with that they can batter these blockades over time w/dryfire and work their way forward that couple of .000 and finally reach the chamber edge. A Win63 for example
Then the damage starts.
You can usually save/repair the chamber by pushing the burr back into place. They make a special tool for that or you can just use the gentle taper found on the shank of most punches or even nail set punches.
The hardened punches slide nicely into the chamber up to the snagging burr.
Then lightly tap the punch forward and let the tapered body of the shank of the punch push the burr back into place. A bit of polishing and you're done.
This usually requires the bbl be removed on many guns,,something the special tool does not with it's off-set style handle.

The earlier (pre '86?) STAR pistols have whats called a Positive Ignition firing pin.
The FP is Non-Rebounding. So with the hammer full down,,the tip of the FP will be poking out the breech face.
With a round in the chamber and the hammer Down,,the firing pin will be pressed down on the primer of the chambered cart by the hammer.
(Like a SAA with a hammer down on a loaded chamber).

Sometime in the later 80's STAR changed their semiauto pistols over to the Rebounding Firing Pin. Spring Loaded like a Colt.
Firing Pin is retracted back into the breech face after firing. So hammer down on a loaded round is considered SAFE. Though some may still not feel safe in carrying that way.

Most STAR Model BM pistols have the earlier Positive Ignition firing pin .
Some late production have the newer Rebounding FP.

To check, pull the slide back on the unloaded pistol and lock it back.
Take a screwdriver blade or other narrow straight edge and push the rear of the FP into the frame so it is flush with the frame (not below it's edge).
Hold it there and look at the face of the breech...
If the FP protrudes,,,it's the earlier Positive Ignition FP
If the FP does NOT protrude,,it's the later Rebounding FP.

The pin limiting the travel of the FP is fairly substantial in dia. It is located in the vertical position underneath the rear sight in the slide. So you have to tap out the Rear Sight to get at that FP retaining Pin.

I got one about ten years ago, I liked it, very nice, it felt great I gave it to my Daughter. At the time I got it SARCO had many parts for it. The only thing I heard was you might have a firing pin problem. Jeff

Seems like if you don't tempt fate use snap caps and don't dry fire the chances of having a firing pin problem is slim to none.

majick47 said:

Seems like if you don't tempt fate use snap caps and don't dry fire the chances of having a firing pin problem is slim to none.

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Baruch haShem.
I never had a problem with the customized one I had (photo up-thread), but I didn't think a centerfire that ought not be dry-fired was something to keep around so I gave it to a friend's kid on his 21st birthday (same kid whom I gave a Polish AK on his 18th ).