Star Model B range report

[bdb]

I got this pistol about 4 weeks ago. I cleaned all the cosmoline off it (there was a lot) and just didn't get to the range until this morning. The gun is in really nice shape overall and made in 1942. I did some reading and love the history line of these pistols. Made in Spain (or subcontracted out), sold (or given) to Germany and used by the Nazi's in WWII (likely civilian police and not military) and then captured by the Russians at the end of the war and finally imported into the US and later sold to me!

Here it is, it's not a great picture and the metal doesn't really have streaks or scratches like it appears, there is a lot of oil on it and I suspect that is what it is, the metal isn't scratched up that bad at all and the bluing is very good..


So the first range trip was rather disappointing. Constant jamming. Failure to eject the spent round with the next round on it's way in. When it did shoot it shot great and really like it overall from an ergonomics perspective. It was pretty accurate as well. I was not as accurate with it as with my Colt or Ruger 1911's but better than I am with my G19 as an example.

When I got to the office I started the research and found out lots of information on the jamming. Looks to be related to the mags. The 3 fixes seem to be -

1. Use steel cased ammo so the ammo column doesn't move around causing the feed issues. Brass is too slippery. Steel is what was in the supply chain when this was designed and tend not to move in the magazine like brass does.
2. The mags likely seat too high which can be fairly easily resolved
3. There is a mod to put a spacer in the back of the mag to take up the extra space since it was first designed for the 9mm Largo cartridge which is larger. I'll do the 3 in this order and see how I make out.

For anyone else having issues or thinking of getting one here is a great write up on the issues and it seems to be exactly what my issues are.
http://kegisland.com/star-b-debugging-project.html

This was the standard feed issue where the next round to load would block the extraction of the spent casing.


Overall, I like it, assuming I can deal with the reliability issues. For $300 pistol I think its great. Plus on a C&R I can have it shipped right to my front door. This is a great "**** you Marsha" which sounds better than "**** you Maura" to me at least. Now if I can't fix my reliability issues I am sure I will singing a different tune.

I am going to call the dealer I bought it from, prior to doing the 3 things listed above, and see what they have to say about my pistol that will not even run a clean mag, ever, with brass ammo at least. I may stop and get some blazer steel at Four Seasons and give it a shot tonight and see how that turns out.

Anyway just passing along a range report of the newest old gun in the safe.

 

[DW357]

I've considered getting one since I shoot so much 9mm and its a cheap enough gun. Although every C&R vendor I'm aware of, doesn't have these in stock...

Nice writeup.

 

[mclina]

I had one of these for a while. It was very accurate when it worked, but it did have a lot of failures to feed/eject. I ended up selling it after it sat in the safe for a year. This was one of the few guns I lost money on.

 

[PATRON]

Many of these model B pistol were made for nazi Germany,but were not marked with the nazi stamp.After the war a lot of these pistols ended up in Russia they were all taken apart cleaned blued,and some parts replaced.One problem was that not all parts interchanged very well like the safety and extractor.The gun will fire most any type of 9mm ammo.There was no special ammo for it.After the war they ended up in a few other countries,and was also used in post war Germany.They also have cheap firing pins so I would not dry fire it.I love my Star pistols.

 

[Terrys]

Thanks for that report. I had one for awhile and liked it. I had no feed problems whatsoever.

 

[RoterTeufel]

I've always been interested in these. Was never sure if a C&R was "required" for them, or if seller preference.

Thanks for the writeup.

 

[mikelawtown]

im in the Market also for a "clean" one. I know someone who picked up a mint one for 300 last year. says it shoots great. I still try to offer him 350..LOL

 

[bdb]

Maybe I just have a lemon or it needs some gunsmith work, beyond my hack skills. The mags don't impress me. Bullets move around, won't stay in the right place, bullets after the first one tend to nose dive. It's the same with the one that came with it and the 2 new ones I paid $35 a piece for. I hear more good than bad when researching them but the best I could get was 3 rounds in a row the. A jam and that was after 8 mags through it, which was a frustrating experience

 

[bdb]

So, using aluminum case Blazer definitely helped. On 6 mags I had zero failures to extract the spent round like I was having before. I was able to run more rounds before the next failures. It is still jamming on double feeds and I am 99.99% sure it's a mag issues. When loading the mags, the first round wants to slide forward like in the picture below. If I were to gently pull that round out, the next one pops up into the same forward position or it just plain pops up and then squirts out completely. Basically with only a slight touch I can get the first 4 rounds of the magazine to just pop pop pop out of the magazine like popcorn. I am pretty sure this is what is causing my double feed issues, one round pops up in and the slide is grabbing the next round.



Not sure if bending down the mag feed lips near the front would stop this or help a little. I am certainly no gunsmith. Any thoughts on this?

Anyway as for shooting, I think it shoots well. When I take my time and really aim, groups are really nice. This target was aimed but not that carefully. The round to the left was the first shot and I knew I pushed it as soon as I shot. The circle is a little under 3 7/8" and the shots were at 30 feet off hand (2 hands). I am happy enough with the accuracy. Not as good as my 1911s but better than I get from my Glocks but I am sure that is mostly just my shooting



Progress but not resolved, the saga continues ........

 

[the_shootist]

I've always been interested in these. Was never sure if a C&R was "required" for them, or if seller preference.

Thanks for the writeup.

The Model B is C&R eligible but the Model Super B (an updated version which tends to be cheaper) is not

 

[bdb]

The Model B is C&R eligible but the Model Super B (an updated version which tends to be cheaper) is not

If you can prove through the serial # it is older than 50 years it should be C&R though right?

 

[the_shootist]

If you can prove through the serial # it is older than 50 years it should be C&R though right?

It hasn't been that cut and dried in my experience. While I can't speak as an expert on the subject it typically has boiled down to whether the seller would be willing to sell directly to a C&R FFL or not. The 50 year thing seems to be somewhat subjective when it's applied to a specific firearms in certain cases.

 

[jaypap]

We bought Model B's back in the late eighties kind of a group buy from a dealer on the Knox Trail. We paid $200.00 each for four guns, they were really clean. The guns were really cool considering 9mm was about $7.00 for fifty rounds back then. No problems with any of the guns we bought. I used mine and sold it a few years later for a small profit.

Looking back I wish I kept it. It was cheap money and a fun gun.

 

[PATRON]

So, using aluminum case Blazer definitely helped. On 6 mags I had zero failures to extract the spent round like I was having before. I was able to run more rounds before the next failures. It is still jamming on double feeds and I am 99.99% sure it's a mag issues. When loading the mags, the first round wants to slide forward like in the picture below. If I were to gently pull that round out, the next one pops up into the same forward position or it just plain pops up and then squirts out completely. Basically with only a slight touch I can get the first 4 rounds of the magazine to just pop pop pop out of the magazine like popcorn. I am pretty sure this is what is causing my double feed issues, one round pops up in and the slide is grabbing the next round.



Not sure if bending down the mag feed lips near the front would stop this or help a little. I am certainly no gunsmith. Any thoughts on this?

Anyway as for shooting, I think it shoots well. When I take my time and really aim, groups are really nice. This target was aimed but not that carefully. The round to the left was the first shot and I knew I pushed it as soon as I shot. The circle is a little under 3 7/8" and the shots were at 30 feet off hand (2 hands). I am happy enough with the accuracy. Not as good as my 1911s but better than I get from my Glocks but I am sure that is mostly just my shooting

I am a member of the Westwood gun club in Medfield if you want to come down some time. I can try to help you fix the problem.

 

[bdb]

Update. And yes Patron, bending the feed lips was one of the 2 fixes I tried. The other was adding a spacer into the mag and replacing the spring and follower with ones from an Astra 600 magazine. The latter came from the link I posted in the first post.

Both fixes did help, I had one mag left stock, 1 with the bent and roughed up lips and one with the spacer added. Bending the feed lips a little and roughing them up a bit did the most good. I was able to get through multiple mags before a double feed. That's the good news. The bad news is the pin holding in the extractor and spring must have worked lose and the extractor popped out and I lost the spring. The really bad news is you cannot get a spring anywhere. Parts are very limited for these and the extractor spring isn't one that is available. I have read that an FN FAL mag release spring can but cut down to work, I have one on order.

I called the company I bought it from and got the answer I expected. "well, it is a WWII surplus weapon, you get what you get". I get it, no problem. I did ask if anyone one else was reporting these failures and he said no and they have shipped a lot of them. So I did the best thing I could think of which is buy another one . I got it last night. It's in the exact same condition. This one however is a good shooter, I ran 11 mags through it this AM with no FTF or FTEs. I did have 1 stovepipe but overall it shot great.

So at least now I have a shooter and gun to tinker with to try and get it running better but also have some spare parts. 2 is 1 and 1 is none right!