Star 1911 Clones - Any Thoughts on Them?
by Remington40x 
, SE PA, Sunday, September 16, 2012, 12:03 (4398 days ago)
One of our local dealers has a Star 1911 style pistol in 9mm. Ordinarily, I wouldn't be interested, but it's in excellent condition and the asking price is under $300 with two extra magazines. I have no idea what I'd do with it, except make it go bang occasionally, but it would fullfil the recent desire for a full-sized 9mm pistol, seeing as how I'm not likely to lay out for a Browning Hi-Power (my first choice) anytime soon.
So, any thoughts on the Star, things to look out for, reasons I should (or shouldn't), etc.?
Star Modelo BM
by Hoot , Diversityville, Liberal-sota, Sunday, September 16, 2012, 20:48 (4397 days ago) @ Remington40x
Cool little 2/3 scale 1911. Mine also never missed. I gave it to one of my boys when he turned 30 (family tradition). The only negative that comes to mind is lack of parts. There used to be a fella over on Gun Broker by the name of Van Loos who had boat loads of spares. He was in Spain but he had parts. Catoosa has at least one and loves 'em. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another if the spirit moved me.
Star Modelo BM
Got three of them. As Hoot stated, only drawback to them is that they have been out of production since about the mid-'90s and parts are hard to find. OTOH, the two parts that almost always heve to be replaced, the recoil spring and the magazine spring, are available from Wolff and cheap. Magazines are hard to find and expensive when you do, but darn near indestructible. If you can accumulate 2 or 3 mags they should last about as long as you need them.
Two of the ones I have were Guardia Civil duty guns that apparently saw hard use for about 20 years. Nevertheless, they are both as tight, accurate and reliable as anything else I have ever seen. I carry them regularly. The third one is almost mint and is currently a safe queen, held in reserve in case one of the others does go down. I wouldn't want to be without one.
I'm speaking specifically of the Model BM. Have no experience with any of the others. I would expect all of them are equally well made, but parts might be even more of a problem with the less common models.
If you get one, DON'T dry fire it, and don't carry it with a round chambered and the hammer down. Most do not have inertia firing pins, and the FP retaining system makes it susceptible to breaking. Cocked and locked OTOH is very safe, because the safety is the best design I have ever seen. Hammer absolutely cannot fall when the safety is on. I have no hesitation carrying mine Condition One.
Star Modelo BM
by Remington40x , SE PA, Monday, September 17, 2012, 13:57 (4397 days ago) @ Catoosa
Catoosa:
This particular Star had no grip safety and the safety could not be put on safe with the hammer cocked. Should I assume there's something wrong with the gun?
Thanks.
Rem
Star Modelo BM
Rem40x:
The Stars do not have a grip safety. The first reason I can think of for the manual safety to be difficult to engage is a glitch in the fit between the safety and hammer. The shaft that the safety rotates on fits into a semicircular cutout in the back of the hammer when the hammer is cocked and the safety is applied. You can see the cutout below the hammer spur when the hammer is down. This is what makes the safety so foolproof - however, depending on how the individual gun is fitted, sometimes you have to push the safety up pretty firmly to get it to engage. If the hammer is not held back quite far enough by the sear, the safety has to cam the hammer back a bit against the pressure of the mainspring so that the safety shaft will turn into the cutout.
If you handle the gun again, pull the hammer back slightly beyond the full cocked position and see if the safety will engage. If it will, that's the problem. Then try pushing the safety lever up pretty hard with the hammer on the full cock notch. If the safety goes on, you will probably see the hammer move back slightly as the safety cams it back out of engagement with the sear. If the safety won't engage with moderate upward pressure, the safety shaft will probably need some fitting. It can be done, but if you don't have access to a gunsmith who is familiar with how it works, you might be better off to just pass that one up. In a properly fitted Star, the safety will work with a positive snap both up and down, but it should not take a great deal of pressure either way.
Good luck and good shooting!
Catoosa
Star Modelo BM
by Remington40x , SE PA, Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 08:53 (4395 days ago) @ Catoosa
Thanks. Now that I know what to look for, I'll go back and take another look at the gun.
Silly thing to be pursuing, but I like full-sized pistols and until I bought my SigP938 a few weeks ago, I'd never owned a 9mm. I had the hots for a Browning Hi-Power I'd seen in a gun shop in western PA, but it was $900 and had been customized to some degree - adjustable sights fitted into the slide and a replacement front sight. The shop owner didn't know if any internal work had been done. So I passed on it. This will take care of the problem and bulk 9mm hardball is still relatively cheap (I emphasize the relatively).