Weshoot2,
Thanks for your response. I guess I should have been more specific. I already have a firestar M-43 and it's a good little pistol. I know they are out of business. Actually, from what I understand, Astra bought them and they all went belly up.
I found a bunch of these model B supers in 9mm Parabellum at a gun show for $189, and I thought they looked a pretty well made gun for the money, so I bought one. In fact, the workmanship on it looks better than that of my M43.
I put a couple of magazines through it, one of WinCleans, and one of Sellier & Bellot FMJ. It choked on the WinClean pretty bad (twice in one mag), but seemed to like the S&B FMJ. From what I have read, this was a sidearm of the Spanish army until they dropped them around 1990. Since it is a military pistol, I didn't really expect it to handle much of anything but FMJ very well. I wanted it for a range plinker and sort of a backup house gun.
I think it needs a stronger recoil spring. I read an earlier post of Stephen A. Camp in which he described putting in a Wolff 18# spring designed for a CZ75 I think. I also may have a local gunsmith polish the throat a little and see if that improves the feeding. One really nice thing I discovered in my exhaustive
16 round test was that the pistol shoots to a near perfect six o'clock hold, and made a real nice tight looking group (I wasn't even trying too hard for accuracy, and still the group looks really nice!). It has a two dot sight system: the front dot and a single dot in the middle under the notch of the rear sight - different, but not bad once you get used to it.
I don't see a lot of places advertising spare parts or magazines. I saw a place or two having magazines close to $30 (ouch!), but I want at least one more. If anyone here knows of a place that has parts and mags for it, please let me know.
Before shooting it, I took it apart and cleaned everything real good (although it wasn't dirty) and properly lubed it. I am really impressed with internal workmanship and the overall condition (very little wear - could mistake it for new easily). I don't think this gun was fired much. Takedown and reassembly is a breeze - just remember that once you take the grips off, don't push the safety down unless you want it to slip off the detent pin (that startled me and it was a bugger to get back in).
I've always wanted a nice 1911, but never seem to have the kind of cash it takes to get one. This may be a good substitute. Of course, it doesn't have a grip safety, but on the bright side it is 'sleeker' than the .45's, and has recoil that is only a little more than shooting a .22 IMHO (not that the .45's recoil is objectionable).
Can anyone correct or add to any of this info?
-10CFR
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