Hello. Though a design no longer produced by anyone and with spare parts hard to find, these
are pretty good little handguns considering that they can frequently be found for under $200 in new or like new condition.
An all-steel pistol w/fixed sights and a 3.77" bbl, they offer no frills, but offer all you "need" in an inexpensive carry pistol. First, they are flat and thinner than most guns on the market. This measures 0.84" thick. The rear sight's a simple blade while the front's a serrated ramp. It comes "throated" from the factory and this one has fed most rounded type JHPs with no problems. An exception is Remington's 124 gr Golden Saber which simply will not feed in this pistol. Other Star BMs might do fine.
Finish is a reasonably even blue with no thin spots and the one-sided, enlarged thumb safety is for right-handed shooters. The stocks are plain, brown, checkered plastic or hard rubber; they are flexible, but not "soft."
Here's a picture of the pistol and one notes a removable bushing ala the 1911, although this pistol comes with a captive recoil spring and a FLGR. It also comes with a magazine disconnect, but that doesn't affect trigger-pull and this single-action automatic comes with a quite useable trigger out of the box.
The guide rod is visible in this picture as well.
Note: The Star BM's bbl comes with but
one locking lug. Steel on Star pistols is traditionally "soft" compared to other handguns and one can see the heat-treated areas on the slides in many cases. Recoil springs are not so easily changed/replaced on these pistols and for these reasons I do NOT recommend much use of +P ammunition. None was used in today's test for that reason and the fact that spare parts are tough to find.
Shooting: The following rounds were fired today as they're commonly used by many 9mm shooters. Today, due to weather and wind, all groups were fired at 15 yards standing w/2-hand hold. All rounds are 10 rnd groups.
Ammunition: Two 115 gr ball standard pressure ball rounds were used, Winchester USA and Fiocchi. I also fired one group with Federal's legendary "9BP," their standard velocity 115 gr JHP.
Here are the results. Left to Right: Winchester, Fiocchi, and Federal.
All of the rounds impacted slightly high and to the right. Part of that could've been me as I found the front sight somewhat hard to keep centered in the gun's "tight" rear sight notch. The gun was never intended as a target gun, but groups pretty darned well for its size and "adequate" sights.
Recoil was minimal. There were zero malfunctions and cases were tossed about 7 to 8' to the right and slightly forward from this handgun.
Observations: For a carry gun, there are many out there that are lighter and a bit smaller, however not based solely on this session, but some years of use, the Star BM does have reliability and decent accuracy. While it IS heavy by today's standards, it's also inexpensive and offers 9x19mm power in a Makarov-weight pistol that is slimmer and trimmer.
Again, I don't recommend +P in this pistol, but could sure understand a fellow wanting to test the gun with it and use it for carry and very rare shooting. I suspect that would be OK.
Hopefully, this report might be of interest for someone wanting a "car gun" or a defensive piece of at least "adequate" caliber that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Best.