I saw a rare shooting Star today

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Riomouse911

Riomouse911

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My favorite receiving FFL packed up and moved to Utah (the lucky dog!) so I have a new receiving FFL for my GB purchases. He and his son are also gunsmiths who do nice restoration work on older guns.

I went by today to pick up my final 2020 gun purchase, a CZ 455 Lux in .22 LR, and he showed me a gun he recently restored for a customer. This was a demilled pistol that the customer said his ne’er-do-well father used to carry in his waistband as “protection” for many years during his gangster days.

Apparently the gun had the firing pin purposely broken off and a spot weld was placed over the firing pin hole. The gunsmith was able to mill a new firing pin and drill out and polish the weld. He recreated the grip screws because the old ones were stripped out. The gun was then lightly polished and reblued to bring it back to life.

The slide says it’s a Star SA in 7.65 (.32 ACP), but it doesn’t look like the other Stars I’ve seen (Those look more 1911-ish than this gun does.) The barrel is slab-sided on both sides and the bottom with sharp edges, while the top has a rounded edge which terminates into a small rib.

The slide looks a lot like the Beretta Tomcat/Jetfire ones, with the rear end and sides reciprocating while the exposed barrel stays put. (It doesn’t tip open like the Berettas do.) Sights are tiny and fixed, the magazine release is behind the trigger and the grips are a shiny brown plastic with a Star logo around the grip screw and a slight thumbrest for right handed shooters.

I can’t seem to find much on these, my FFL believes these were possibly some of the last guns Star made before their dissolution due to bankruptcy. If anyone has any info on these particular guns that I can share with him I’d appreciate it.

8D0B6043-4E21-4A3A-8042-0DB9F3B3E1F8.jpeg

C310885E-A8F1-4CF7-87D4-1D94C8B9E910.jpeg

Thanks!

Stay safe.
 
It looks like it might be a Star model I. I think they were made in 32 and 380 ACP.

It is a very interesting looking gun. I have seen the 22's, but never any other caliber.

On a side note, I think you will like your 455 Lux. I have one and it is a great shooter. I was also lucky enough to find the 22 Mag conversion kit. Enjoy your new rifle!
 
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Probably my absolute favorite 9mm is my Star UltraStar, a single stack polymer framed hammer fired compact 9mm.
 
Star made some nice pistols over the years. And they were one of the first into the light weight compact 45ACP market with their PD. I have an old Star Super A in 9mm Largo and two Firestar pistols, M43 -9mm and M40 -40S&W. It is a shame that they went under. Star got lumped into the same category of cheap steel with all the small Spanish gun makers.
 
12Bravo20 said:
Star made some nice pistols over the years. And they were one of the first into the light weight compact 45ACP market with their PD. I have an old Star Super A in 9mm Largo and two Firestar pistols, M43 -9mm and M40 -40S&W. It is a shame that they went under. Star got lumped into the same category of cheap steel with all the small Spanish gun makers.
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I recall the Firestars back in the day, they were chunky little guns that everyone I knew who had one liked a lot.
It is too bad they folded, but we’ve all seen gun companies large and small come and go over the years so it’s not surprising they went away.

Thanks for the info, I’ll check out the model I.

Stay safe.
 
Based on the info 12Bravo20 provided it looks like a 1967-only model IR, as it has the squared off barrel and the slide stop on it.

Thanks!

Stay safe.
 
I do enjoy shooting my two Firestars. Yes they are heavy for their size but the weight helps soak up recoil. And the Super A in 9mm Largo is mild to shoot.
 
Walkalong said:
That is awesome, I am so jealous of the owner. :)
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Me too. What an odd gun to try and de-activate. I wonder why? Whatever the reason, it's very handsome and should be a very pleasant shooter.

I wonder if Model F grips would fit it? The plastic is functional, but it would look better with some good wood, or at least some better plastic.
 
Yeah, the grips are pretty gaudy. Some nice walnut panels would make it quite a looker.

I have no history on it, nor any reason why the gun was initially demilled. I just thought it was a somewhat rare and interesting pistol to share, and I figured someone here would point me in the right direction as to the model :thumbup:.

Stay safe.
 
If you really like the Star pistols, the book by Dr. L.M. Antaris, Star Firearms (2001) is really worth the money.
 
Nice handgun. Thanks for the pictures. I saw something like that in a store around 30 years ago. It's always somewhere in the back of my mind.

My Dad has an M 31. It's a really cool gun and a pleasure to shoot. If there had been more produced maybe .40 S&W would be more popular....
 
"Star got lumped into the same category of cheap steel with all the small Spanish gun makers."
Lumped in by metallurgists? There were three major long term pistol makers in Spain, Astra, Star and Llama, all are gone now. I tend to think "How hard does a frame need to be" when I hear about soft steel Spanish guns, our own 1911 A1's made during WW2 had soft frames. As for cheap steel they mined it nearby, I don't know how it could be called cheap unless there is slag in the melt. Star and Astra, I admit, spent much more money on Quality checking than Llama, and many were of high production quality. Long after I'm a fading memory my Spanish steel will be pleasing some worthy owner.

The worst enemy of fine firearms is a tyrannical government.
 
HisSoldier said:
"Star got lumped into the same category of cheap steel with all the small Spanish gun makers."
Lumped in by metallurgists? There were three major long term pistol makers in Spain, Astra, Star and Llama, all are gone now. I tend to think "How hard does a frame need to be" when I hear about soft steel Spanish guns, our own 1911 A1's made during WW2 had soft frames. As for cheap steel they mined it nearby, I don't know how it could be called cheap unless there is slag in the melt. Star and Astra, I admit, spent much more money on Quality checking than Llama, and many were of high production quality. Long after I'm a fading memory my Spanish steel will be pleasing some worthy owner.

The worst enemy of fine firearms is a tyrannical government.
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A) I don't much about metallurgy, really, but I do know that different makers use different steels. Tokarevs were made with very hard steels, as I understand it. And if the Spanish didn't use soft steels, at least at times, I'd like to know why the Ruby 32 automatics supplied to the French in WWI are just massive compared to an FN 1900 or a Colt 1903?

No one is saying that Astra and Star did not make first rate guns, or that Llama did not make decent ones. But it is undeniable that some Spanish guns were just generally poor quality, and back then, a way to make guns on the cheap was to use softer steel. That's why the revolvers made by H&R and Iver Johnson had frames made of "malleable iron", which has the carbon content of wrought iron (but not the slag, as I understand it). The metal was adequate for its purpose; that is why those guns are still around in large numbers today. But to argue it was not relatively soft would be wrong.

B) "[O]ur own 1911 A1's made during WW2 had soft frames." If you say so, but what do you mean, and how do you know? Otherwise, I 'm not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole.

C)"The worst enemy of fine firearms is a tyrannical government." Why did you throw that in here? How is it relevant? I'd rather people did not drop politics into every thread.
 
Most of the Spanish handgun industry for export was performed by Astra, Star, and Llama under the rule of Generallisimo Francisco Franco. How does that jibe with the "tyrannical government" thing? Some were highly decorated as in damascened, and some of those were custom guns for German military figures shortly after Franco came to & consolidated his power, when Germany was widely recognized as having a tyrannical form of government.

Dunno how many knocks the quality & functionality of German firearms should receive while under a tyrannical government, including many designs taken into service from other nations such as Czechoslovakia during that period.

Guess it depends on the definition of "fine", and maybe subjective perspective on "tyrannical". My understanding is private firearms ownership is far more strictly regulated and controlled in Spain these days vs when Franco was in power, and the Spanish firearm industry is kaput.
 
Mr. Zorg said:
Most of the Spanish handgun industry for export was performed by Astra, Star, and Llama under the rule of Generallisimo Francisco Franco. How does that jibe with the "tyrannical government" thing?
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This is the kind of point I always miss in a discussion! Good catch, Mr. Zorg.
 
For those of us who can remember watching this live, as well as those who never had the opportunity to watch live.



And so is the Spanish armaments industry. I doubt it'll ever rise again.
 
Monac said:
A) I don't much about metallurgy, really, but I do know that different makers use different steels. Tokarevs were made with very hard steels, as I understand it. And if the Spanish didn't use soft steels, at least at times, I'd like to know why the Ruby 32 automatics supplied to the French in WWI are just massive compared to an FN 1900 or a Colt 1903?

No one is saying that Astra and Star did not make first rate guns, or that Llama did not make decent ones. But it is undeniable that some Spanish guns were just generally poor quality, and back then, a way to make guns on the cheap was to use softer steel.
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My general understanding of this, was the French WW1 contracts to procure handguns. They weren't ready when war broke out, and scrambled to find whatever they could; hence Savage sent them a bunch, and of course the Ruby's.
As I follow, there was a huge contract, and the better companies (which became Star, Astra and Llama) couldn't fill it. So they farmed out to various cottage gunsmiths in Eibar, who didn't have the same ability to mass-produce items in matching specs, and who didn't necessarily do proper heat treatment.

B) "[O]ur own 1911 A1's made during WW2 had soft frames." If you say so, but what do you mean, and how do you know? Otherwise, I 'm not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole.
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I've heard at times that some stuff wasn't heat-treated right. You gotta figure, a 1911 is going to be way down the list of priorities, below rifles, etc.

C)"The worst enemy of fine firearms is a tyrannical government." Why did you throw that in here? How is it relevant? I'd rather people did not drop politics into every thread
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Yeah, not sure where that's going. Tyrannical governments tend to want lots of firearms, to maintain control of the populace. Now, they might be utilitarian, but if there's a strong firearms industry things will still be quality, I suspect. It just might not be fancy.
 
I had several Star BMs, which I sold when the gun was discontinued. I watched as the prices of parts soared after the discontinuation, and just after they passed the exorbitant and move into the unavailable levels, I made the difficult choice.

The Stars are good guns, but the parts issue with the Ruger Security-Six aren't the same because one can use the Rugers the rest of their lives and have no breakage problems. The BMs, though, just don't have the durability of Rugers, and if they break, you may as well weld up the barrel and give it to your kid to play with (where no cops are likely to encounter them, that is). And though the guns are very nice little pistols, they aren't Colts.

I remember the smell of the machine oil they were pretty much drenched with. The stamping of words in the steel wasn't great, but they were reliable guns. You did, however, need a parts source because breakages were common if fired often.
 
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