Looking for Star Firestar

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PeterGunn

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I am considering the purchase of a Star Firestar in 9mm for a close relative.

1) Are these weapons still in production?

2) What should i expect to pay for one new or used in excellent condition?

3) Are extra Mags still available?

Any information you guys could give me on the subject would be greatly appreciated. Even info. from a performance point of view.

Thanks,

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"By His stripes we are healed..."

PeterGunn
 
I paid $295.00 (new) for my 9mm 2 years ago. I later saw the for around $50.00 less at the gun shows. I heard that they went out of production, but I still see new ones from time to time. The price is still around $295.00 on these new ones. Used ones in excellent shape are going for about $100.00 less. Prices vary all over the board, even at the local shows. The store where I bought mine has magazines for $39.95, but they are high on everything. Mine was an excellent shooter, more than accurate enough for anything I used it for. It was/is also utterly reliable. I only fired a couple hundred rounds through it, barely breaking it in, before giving it to my son last year for his birthday. My son has fired a hundred or so rounds with no problems. The only drawback to them is the heavy weight and lack of detailed finish. The exterior is kinda rough and has a lot of toolmarks. The trigger was a bit on the heavy side, but broke very clean and crisp, and seemed to get better the more I shot it. If I ran across one in really good shape for around $175.00 to $200.00, I would grab it in a heartbeat. The single stack version is the one I had, but the Firestar also can be found as the Firestar Plus. The plus goes locally for about $100.00 more. That puts it, pricewise, too close to many better choices for me, but YMMV, based on what you can find out there. Takedown is ultra easy, so if you find one strip it down and look real hard at the ejector. The ejector on mine looked kind of weak and cheesy to my untrained eye, but I never heard of anyone having a problem with it. Overall, they are good serviceable pistols, accurate and well made from an engineering standpoint, extremely reliable with any ammunition I tried, from range reloads to Cor-Bon's. The heavy weight adds to the comfort level when shooting. I liked mine a whole lot better than my PPK. It had more going for it as far as price, ammo price, reliability and shootability. The guy that owns the stroe where I bought mine carries one in the store for protection. Since he pretty much has his choice of anything he wants to carry, I think that says a lot for his confidence in them. BTW, his is the single stack in 9mm. He says he chose it simply because it is the single most accurate and fast gun that he has ever shot, and he has never had a failure with it. Based on my experience with mine, I feel he isn't wrong.

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CCW for Ohio action site.
http://www.ofcc.net
 
They did go out of production as a result of the merger between STAR and ASTRA. All remaining products are marked as ASTRA now.

The Fire Stars are nifty little units. Single action autos with vary small sizes for the full house chamberings... 9 40 and 45.

They are a little heavy for there size - but they carry well and shoot well. I had no problems with mine in 45. It liked all the rounds I fed it, even Gold Dots.

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"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." - Sigmund Freud
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
 
If you're looking for a Firestar, you can have one for free. Just go diving in the creek behind my prior residence, where I threw mine after my very last shooting session with the thing.

I purchased mine after reading tales about how reliable it was supposed to be. I'm sure they were true, though - It's just part of my curse to get stuck with the crappy one. In essence, frequent jams were the problem, even after a trip to Interarms' service department, which now is no longer an option.

If you still want a Firestar, I recommend that you get it only from someone you know and trust, and only after you've put a couple of hundred "evaluation" rounds through it. Sarco bought up the remaining spare parts inventory from Interarms, Wolff (as always) has good springs, and I'd get extra magazines from Ajax. Avoid Firestars from any other source, as you might get a dog like I did. And there is now no service center in America OR Spain that wants to touch them (for free). If it's a brand new compact 9 you need, try Smith, Taurus, or other more stable manufaturing entities with active - and accessable - factory service centers. Lifetime warranties are useless if the factory itself goes away...
 
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