A few days ago a friend mentioned some standard grade Star Model BM’s, and that got my interest up enough to go shopping and find some in Select condition. I found some nice ones and darn if I didn’t bite for one. My new/old 9mm Star Model BM arrived from Aim Surplus yesterday and I’m very pleased with my choice. I ordered a Select grade pistol with hand-pick “best-of-five” ($260), and I believe they sent me a nice pistol that’s every bit as advertised.
The Star Model BM was made in Spain for police use from 1972 to 1992. This one was made in 1976. (The date of manufacture is stamped high on the forward right side of the trigger guard.) I believe this particular pistol probably spent its career in someone’s desk drawer with a negligible number of trips to the range. I doubt that it has fired more than a couple of hundred rounds, and its general good condition suggests a very quiet career. As far as cleanliness, I’ve never received a pistol this clean unless it was brand new - somebody took darn good care of it as I barely soiled two 12 gauge patches in cleaning the entire pistol and magazine.
These three photos show the general condition of the gun.
As for specifics, the barrel shines like a new dollar. There is a minor amount of blue wear to the front of the grip frame, on the slide and frame here and there, and on the safety and slide stop levers. But aside from that the gun is a nice shiny blue - a small amount of cold blue will make it look new. The diamonds on the grips are sharp as new, and when I took the grips off to clean underneath them, the screws let go with an audible snap when they broke loose. So I doubt that they’d been off the gun in many years. And luckiest of all, there was no corrosion underneath them. I was also pleased to see that the grip screws weren’t buggered up. The magazine was in very good condition with no signs of corrosion or deformities, and I found that the ADCO ST3.1 Super Thumb works just fine with this magazine.
Level of wear on the internals of my new pistol. Also illustrated is the quality of the finish machining.
Everything about the gun is smooth. The finish machining is, IMHO, pretty much in the same league as a CZ 75, and I absolutely love the sharpness of the slide serrations. The slide racks smoothly and it doesn’t take two men and a mule to retract it. The hammer cocks easily with an audible half cock. The safety and slide stop are crisp and smooth. The trigger is surprisingly good. My “M1A1 Triggerfingerguessometer” says it’s a skosh under five pounds with a nice, clean break. Quite frankly, I would take this trigger on any general purpose or service pistol I’ve ever owned.
As for bad points, there are a few. Probably the gun’s biggest design drawback lies in the absence of an inertia firing pin or a firing pin safety. This makes it more liable to fire when dropped than more modern designs. i.e. the gun requires your undivided attention – there are no automatic safety devices anywhere on it. You either watch what you’re doing or you shoot yourself – like with the TT33 Toks and Zastava Toks.
The manual safety sets quietly but the release is loud enough to be heard in the next room. That can be good or bad, depending on individual preferences. Some will object to the fact that the safety can be set with the hammer fully down, but again, preferences reign. (It can be set with the hammer fully down or fully cocked, but not at the half cock position.)
Manual safety in disassembly notch.
The gun has a magazine disconnector, which means the mags have to be pulled out. But what the heck, it’s a European military/police pistol and those folks are paranoid about losing mags in battle, so they do everything short of gluing them in. Thankfully it doesn’t affect the trigger pull quality as in the Browning Hi Power. The disconnector comes out with great ease in about five minutes and can be reinstalled with equal ease, but I won’t be using this pistol for carry, so I’m going to leave it alone for now.
Guys on the forums complain about the short tang causing hammer bite among shooters with large hands, most saying that bobbing a slight amount off of the hammer spur cures the problem. So if you have large hands, watch out for hammer bite with this pistol.
Hammer bite.
They also warn against dry firing this gun, saying it damages firing pins, so it seems like a snap cap is in order.
The rear sight notch is too shallow to suit me and will soon be a bit deeper. But the sights are about what I’d expect on 70’s era surplus 9mm and are completely useable. They’re wide, squared off, and heads and shoulders better than the hump and bump sights on 1911’s and BHP’s.
Front and rear sights
The disassembly procedure will fool you if you expect it to be like the 1911. Locking the slide back for field stripping requires that the safety be latched into a disassembly notch in the slide just forward of the slide serrations….more reminiscent of a BHP than a 1911.
Again, the manual safety in the disassembly notch.
The right side of the slide contains the usual great American novel forward of the ejection port, and the Spaniards ground the police insignias off the gun with an end mill. They reblued the spots, but they still look out of place. And the importer, for some unknown reason, probably bureaucratic, added his own serial number in addition to the maker’s numbers on both the slide and frame. The ATF goes by the importer’s serial number, just in case you’re wondering.
Here we have the factory serial numbers on the frame and slide just above the trigger. The Importer's serial number is on the frame forward of the slide stop nub. The year of manufacture, "76" can be seen where the trigger guard joins the frame. The Great American Novel is on the slide just forward of the ejection port. The two circles at the rear of the photo are where the Spanish logos were removed with an end mill.
The pistol shows impressive care in manufacture and I believe it to be one of the higher quality service pistols I’ve run across. Bottom line - I think this was $260 well spent. AIM Surplus is sold out of the Select grade right now, but will email you when they’re back in stock, which would seem to say they anticipate buying more. They still have the Standard ($199) and Plus ($225) grades in stock. Mags are still available from JG Sales and Classic Firearms in very good condition for $20 each. I can vouch for the ones at Classic Firearms being very good ones.
Here’s the link to Aim Surplus
www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?groupid=11963&name=STAR%20Model%20BM%209MM%20Handgun.
JayPee
The Star Model BM was made in Spain for police use from 1972 to 1992. This one was made in 1976. (The date of manufacture is stamped high on the forward right side of the trigger guard.) I believe this particular pistol probably spent its career in someone’s desk drawer with a negligible number of trips to the range. I doubt that it has fired more than a couple of hundred rounds, and its general good condition suggests a very quiet career. As far as cleanliness, I’ve never received a pistol this clean unless it was brand new - somebody took darn good care of it as I barely soiled two 12 gauge patches in cleaning the entire pistol and magazine.
These three photos show the general condition of the gun.
As for specifics, the barrel shines like a new dollar. There is a minor amount of blue wear to the front of the grip frame, on the slide and frame here and there, and on the safety and slide stop levers. But aside from that the gun is a nice shiny blue - a small amount of cold blue will make it look new. The diamonds on the grips are sharp as new, and when I took the grips off to clean underneath them, the screws let go with an audible snap when they broke loose. So I doubt that they’d been off the gun in many years. And luckiest of all, there was no corrosion underneath them. I was also pleased to see that the grip screws weren’t buggered up. The magazine was in very good condition with no signs of corrosion or deformities, and I found that the ADCO ST3.1 Super Thumb works just fine with this magazine.
Level of wear on the internals of my new pistol. Also illustrated is the quality of the finish machining.
Everything about the gun is smooth. The finish machining is, IMHO, pretty much in the same league as a CZ 75, and I absolutely love the sharpness of the slide serrations. The slide racks smoothly and it doesn’t take two men and a mule to retract it. The hammer cocks easily with an audible half cock. The safety and slide stop are crisp and smooth. The trigger is surprisingly good. My “M1A1 Triggerfingerguessometer” says it’s a skosh under five pounds with a nice, clean break. Quite frankly, I would take this trigger on any general purpose or service pistol I’ve ever owned.
As for bad points, there are a few. Probably the gun’s biggest design drawback lies in the absence of an inertia firing pin or a firing pin safety. This makes it more liable to fire when dropped than more modern designs. i.e. the gun requires your undivided attention – there are no automatic safety devices anywhere on it. You either watch what you’re doing or you shoot yourself – like with the TT33 Toks and Zastava Toks.
The manual safety sets quietly but the release is loud enough to be heard in the next room. That can be good or bad, depending on individual preferences. Some will object to the fact that the safety can be set with the hammer fully down, but again, preferences reign. (It can be set with the hammer fully down or fully cocked, but not at the half cock position.)
Manual safety in disassembly notch.
The gun has a magazine disconnector, which means the mags have to be pulled out. But what the heck, it’s a European military/police pistol and those folks are paranoid about losing mags in battle, so they do everything short of gluing them in. Thankfully it doesn’t affect the trigger pull quality as in the Browning Hi Power. The disconnector comes out with great ease in about five minutes and can be reinstalled with equal ease, but I won’t be using this pistol for carry, so I’m going to leave it alone for now.
Guys on the forums complain about the short tang causing hammer bite among shooters with large hands, most saying that bobbing a slight amount off of the hammer spur cures the problem. So if you have large hands, watch out for hammer bite with this pistol.
Hammer bite.
They also warn against dry firing this gun, saying it damages firing pins, so it seems like a snap cap is in order.
The rear sight notch is too shallow to suit me and will soon be a bit deeper. But the sights are about what I’d expect on 70’s era surplus 9mm and are completely useable. They’re wide, squared off, and heads and shoulders better than the hump and bump sights on 1911’s and BHP’s.
Front and rear sights
The disassembly procedure will fool you if you expect it to be like the 1911. Locking the slide back for field stripping requires that the safety be latched into a disassembly notch in the slide just forward of the slide serrations….more reminiscent of a BHP than a 1911.
Again, the manual safety in the disassembly notch.
The right side of the slide contains the usual great American novel forward of the ejection port, and the Spaniards ground the police insignias off the gun with an end mill. They reblued the spots, but they still look out of place. And the importer, for some unknown reason, probably bureaucratic, added his own serial number in addition to the maker’s numbers on both the slide and frame. The ATF goes by the importer’s serial number, just in case you’re wondering.
Here we have the factory serial numbers on the frame and slide just above the trigger. The Importer's serial number is on the frame forward of the slide stop nub. The year of manufacture, "76" can be seen where the trigger guard joins the frame. The Great American Novel is on the slide just forward of the ejection port. The two circles at the rear of the photo are where the Spanish logos were removed with an end mill.
The pistol shows impressive care in manufacture and I believe it to be one of the higher quality service pistols I’ve run across. Bottom line - I think this was $260 well spent. AIM Surplus is sold out of the Select grade right now, but will email you when they’re back in stock, which would seem to say they anticipate buying more. They still have the Standard ($199) and Plus ($225) grades in stock. Mags are still available from JG Sales and Classic Firearms in very good condition for $20 each. I can vouch for the ones at Classic Firearms being very good ones.
Here’s the link to Aim Surplus
www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?groupid=11963&name=STAR%20Model%20BM%209MM%20Handgun.
JayPee
