Star BM 9mm

[peterb]

A local club just had a "bring your guns for other members to try" day, and one of the pistols I enjoyed shooting -- and shot well -- was a Star BM 9mm, a compact all-steel single-stack based on the 1911. I've done a little research and found that there's no factory or aftermarket support, but no huge red flags either. Saw a couple for $250 on Gunbroker. It'd be a "neat old gun" and range toy, not a carry piece. Any concerns/comments about getting one as an occasional shooter? I'm assuming standard-pressure loads only.

[JAD]

There's a lot of them out there and a 'parts gun' would be a clever thing to have. They're often a little soft, and may loosen up after some time, but who cares for the money and purpose? The examples I've seen run.

[Tamara]

Roomie has a few Star BMs and uses an alloy-framed BKM as a nightstand gun. She likes hers.

[LSP972]

Aside from the chance of getting a "soft" one- Basque steel is not known for its uniformity- and the fact that some Stars feature non-inertial firing pins which will break if dry-fired much, they are decent pistols.

The afore-mentioned BKM StarLight is a neat little carry piece if one is into SA pistols with a manual safety. Ditto the PD, although its a bit more of a handful than an aluminum Commander with full patch loads. The full-size Model B in 9mm is a nice shooter.

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[WilsonCombatRep]

I have been looking for a nice BKM if anyone has any leads please PM me. One of the best designed 9mm's out there. Unfortunately made in Basque country pre-CNC.

[Drang]

Mrs. Drang's BKM is pretty nice. Thinking about a parts gun or guns, since (as noted) spares are rare.

[Dave T]

Back when I wore a badge for a living my first off-duty weapon was a S&W M60. Always felt about half un-armed with that little 5 shooter so I went looking for something better but still light and concealable. Found the BKM and thought it was just the ticket. One of the thinest 9mms ever made and so easy to tuck into the waist band of my jeans when off duty.

I was one of the exceptions to most LEOs back then (the 1970s) in that I shot what I carried…a lot. Found a deal on a case of some European surplus 9mm and proceeded to shoot the crap out of that BKM. Literally. A little over half way thought that case (I think it was 500 rounds or so) the Star started having problems with functioning reliably. Don't remember specifics (too many years ago) but I finally gave up and got a Colt Commander (the original alloy frame version) and carried those to retirement and for a number of years after. Always wished someone would have made a durable BKM. That thing sure was easy to hide and carry.

Dave

[ACP230]

SarCo has advertised some Star pistols in Shotgun News lately.

[Rich]

A few of my friends in the 80`s carried star 9mm

[Gun Mutt]

I've nothing of any value whatsoever to contribute...but, and this will be a big surprise to some of you, I do have a story involving a Star. It was a .45 PD, but that's close enough for me to necro-bunny trail a 5yr dead thread. We were just discussing Star pistols elsewhere and this 30yr old story suddenly needed to be told. I enjoyed telling it enough that I had to find a place to share it at P-F. If the shit mods here don't like this post, they can move or delete it as it pleases them.

In 1990, I was going to switch colleges and take a semester off while doing so. I wasn't thrilled to get another general labor job on a construction site, but that was my usual summer SOP. Then I watched this movie Repo Man, and that looked like a lot more fun, so I decided to do that instead.

And that's how freshly 21yr old me and my 23yr old brother-from-another-mother, JB, (we met in the reserves where we despised a lot of the same authority figures) started to repo cars for a collection agency in NW Indiana, covering south to Indianapolis and well into the shittiest parts of Illinois. So, so very young and oh so dumb...and what grand adventures we did have stealing cars legally. (-ish. We certainly didn't feel we broke any moral codes, mighta definitely shaded awfully gray on a couple man's laws.)

I had my ccw permit, but I didn't yet have my brand new Taurus 92 off of layaway, so my boss made sure I had the keys to get one of the two pistols he kept at the office. The one in his desk was the Star PD and I carried it (condition 2) far more often than the 4" Taurus .357 that was in the office manager's desk. When we were heading into Gary or East Chicago, I'd carry both, of course...I said I was young and dumb, not foolish.

We split $265 per car, I had a company card for gas and long distance phone calls and boys, we were killing it, I mean we were Batman & Robin on this gig. We were out every night scouting, scoping and righteously stealing. Our record was 5 vehicles in 48hrs from all over the top half of the state. We got the repo papers off the fax machine on a Friday afternoon and turned them all in Monday morning. And we didn't even have a tow truck...just lots of balls and a little brains.

I never did shoot at anyone, though guns did get pointed in both directions a couple of times and an old farmer once stood on his back porch and rained birdshot on his own barn whilst we were in it. JB would later be in a two round gunfight the year after I moved to Indy. A repoee fired a .22mag out the window of his home and hit Jim in the left forearm, Jim fired a .380 from his PPK through said window and unassed the area directly to the ER and called the cops before he checked in at the desk. Turns out he didn't hit the guy, but to this day he'll tell you it sure wasn't 'cause he didn't want to.

Anyway, back to that .45 Star PD and the only time I pointed that pistol at anyone. We'd gotten so good getting cars back that a bank called and asked me how I felt about repo'ing a house. A mobile home? Nope, nope, it's a real house, split level with an attached two car garage. They'd foreclosed on it and someone was still using the water that hadn't been cut off yet. I told them to have the water shut off and went to talk to my boss. My boss had graduated law school, but he'd never passed the bar, never even taken the exam to here him tell it. He wrote us a contract that he said protected us, the bank signed it and off I went to fetch JB and reclaim a house.

When we got to the house that afternoon, the first thing we noticed was that the windows of the garage were boarded over. Probably necessary to keep the large, angry sounding beast inside it from breaking through the windows. Was it even a dog in there? Siberian Tiger maybe? Good googly moogly what a bark! Ok, it's a dog, he's to be considered truly Cujo if we are forced to make contact. If the dog wasn't loud enough to tell people we were there, our knocking certainly was. We proceed to peep every window, we can visually clear the ground floor pretty well, of the lower level we can see only the dark carpeted stairwell. So, time to go in.

JB wouldn't let me kick the door, insisting on using a small pry bar so it'd be easy to resecure it when we left. All business that guy. We're in and JB's covering the stairs while I move through checking blind spots and closets. We're talking to each other and anyone within range. We're ID'ing ourselves as bank employees and asking anyone home to come out showing hands. Nada, ok, time for the dark stairs. one last shout: If we see that dog, we will shoot it repeatedly!!

JB was carrying one of those newfangled plastic Glocks, a 19 to be specific. I had to admit, it really was an ok gun, not so ok that I'd buy one, but I trusted JB's to work. He looks at me before we start down the stairs and reminds me of the article we'd just shared about keeping your finger out of the trigger guard like he was doing with his G19...he grins and whispers, "I don't want you sneezing on the stairs and shooting me in the back on accident." Which was silly to even say. I mean, I'd cocked the Star before we entered the house and cleared the upstairs with my finger inside the guard and my thumb atop the engaged safety, seriously, what kinda sneeze is he scared of? Fine, I'm nothing if not adaptable. I snick off the safety and put my trigger finger in register.

I let JB get two steps down and put my left hand on his shoulder so he can feel me joining the descent. It's straight down into a left only turn, JB crouching lower as we get to the bottom, me standing tall and two steps higher, our Weaver stances naturally getting all CAR (way before there was CAR) as we crowd the shit outta that wall and nod to each other again and start to take our first real life slice of that infamous pie and right then, time went weird; all fast and slow at the same time-

He's there -The Guy With The Gun- and it's turning our way; my throat is too tight to breathe, much less make sounds, I'm twisted at an odd angle, but my right wrist is against the edge of the wall just like a PPC barricade and simultaneously, my left hand is flashing to JB's shoulder again, this time to make sure he doesn't straighten up in front of my muzzle...and the guy, the guy's hand is moving to JB's shoulder too...and yeah, it's a mirror and that's me pointing a .45 at me, oh thank God! And wtf? The whole nook is covered in mirrors and one big cushion.

We finished clearing the empty house (and yep, found all kinds of pictures and stuff that thoroughly explained all the mirrors) and waited for Animal Control to take possession of the huge, scary, angry and most likely starving dog. Secured the door with a padlock all easy-peasy like and took the keys to the bank to get paid.

You know, now that I think back on it, I don't believe I ever even got to fire a mag through that Star. I'm still very glad the first rounds weren't through that wall.

Anyway, a few more adventures convinced me that my boss was making too much money in this arrangement and taking way too little of the risk. And what was I doing with my life anyway? I was supposed to be in college. I moved to Indy to spend the summer with Mom and Gran before enrolling at IU in the fall. I'd need a job, too, and it wasn't gonna be in the repo business. Even where I could get my foot in the door, they used tow trucks and got paid a measly $100 per car. Who needed this shit?

Besides, I was a lifelong martial artist and I'd seen this movie Road House and bouncing in a topless joint looked like a lot more fun, so I decided to do that instead...