Star m43 9mm opinions. Reviews if you have one.

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bspillman

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Looking at buying one for 300 bucks. but I have no experience with star guns. If you can give some insite I'd appreciate some. Thanks.
 
Star m43 9mm opinions.
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Got on in trade 3 or 4 years ago.

Heavy little sucker. The size of a Kel Tec PF9, twice the weight. Magazines are pricey. (.40 Firestar magazines are identically dimensioned, and work fine for 9mm. Just a hint.)

The magazine disconnect works by having a bit of metal pressing into the side of the magazine. This makes the magazine not drop free.

Controls are large, well proportioned and easy to reach and manipulate.

I've had a hard time warming up to it. Partly, I think it's because I am not as accurate with it as I'd like to be.

It is well made.
 
I have had one since they came out some twenty years ago. Back then they were probably about the smallest 9mm available. Mine is the Starvel (nickel) finish and it has proven to be fairly durable. Compared to the polymer guns of today the all steel construction is very heavy. Mine has proven to be accurate which I suppose is due to the weight and the nice single action trigger.

They have probably been out of production for close to twenty years now and parts might be problematic. I managed to find a couple spare magazines on eBay about 8 years ago. If you need any parts beyond magazines, you might be hard pressed to find them. Gun Parts Corp. might have other parts but I have not checked myself.

Personally, I would not sell mine for $300 but if I were buying one now, $300 is probably more than I would want to spend on one. For not much more than $300 you can get into a brand new 9mm from a manufacturer who is still in business and able to offer warranty repairs.
 
I owned one, once, back in the 90s. It was a very competent and reliable gun, but, for some reason, because of the firing pin block I never could get a nice even smooth trigger pull. It bugged the heck out of me since, no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to operate smoothly; Still a very annoying notchy pull. I could only get a decent pull if I removed the firing block entirely, which more or less made the gun unsafe, not a good option. I eventually got rid of it and got an Astra A75 to replace it.
 
You shouldn't need parts. I make firing pins for them. That's about the only part that breaks.
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My understanding is there is a stretch of serial numbers that were more prone to that.

NTERARMS has learned of occasional firing pin breakage in the Star M43 FIRESTAR 9MM pistols within the limited serial number range 1,953,001 to 1,958,000 ONLY. Such breakage does not pose any direct hazard to the shooter; however, the pistol is rendered inoperable.
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bspillman said:
Tamara, what do you mean by "their at the bottom of the ocean"?
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There's a sea story that a full container of Star spare parts and magazines went overboard in a storm in transit between Interarms and one of the big parts wholesalers in the latter half of the '90s after Star went toes up, and this is the reason for Star spares being so hard to come by.

I can't swear to its veracity, but I've heard it more than one place, and it's a fun way to explain the paucity of repair parts available on the market.

As to them not needing spares? I'd really be interested to see a Firestar with a documented five-digit round count. I like the guns, have owned them and my roommate has several, but I don't know they're any great shakes in the longevity department if you shoot the wheels off things. Then again, who shoots a pocket nine that much anyway?

They have a lingering cult status with shooters of a certain age, because they debuted at a time when "pocket nines" didn't exist. In a world with no Kahrs, Glock 26s, et cetera, the M43 was kind of a big deal. Now? Not so much, but the cool factor lingers.
 
I agree very cool. I bought it this morning it's the fire star plus 10 round version. I was able to field strip it and such and it looks like it in great shape. The serial number is 2158619. If that helps with any information.
 
If you see a spare magazine, jump on it. The "Plus" was one of the very last guns introduced by Star on the US market before they went under, and so they aren't super common.

Neat guns. :)

(I want to say that the "pre-ban" Plus mags held 12 rounds.)
 
bspillman said:
Also one more question. What type of lube do these run best on?
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I'm not one of these people that gets all excited about the Oil of the Month. I've got a bottle of FP-10 in my range bag and some CLP on my workbench... or maybe it's the other way around. ;)
 
I don't have one, but a friend does, and I've shot it quite a bit.

Pros:

-Accurate.
-Nice trigger.
-Quite compact.
-1911-ish ergonomics.
-Reliable (I've never seen his fail.)

Cons:

-So-so finishing with some sharp edges.
-Heavy for its size.
-Tiny trigger guard is awkward for folks with even average-length fingers.
-Star is long out of business, so spare parts are essentially impossible to find, and mags are limited as well.
 
I agree very cool. I bought it this morning it's the fire star plus 10 round version.
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So, what you have is not the M43. Yeah, grab magazines when you can, if you're going to keep this.

Also one more question. What type of lube do these run best on?
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Whatever. Light grease on the rails, touch of "gun oil" elsewhere.
 
I don't sell the pins. I custom make them and properly fit them to your slide.
Contact me through my web site: billdeshivs.com for pricing.
 
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