Shot my Dad's Star B Super yesterday

[292]

He gave it to me just before he passed away, it's been in my gun closet for several years. I posted in gun smithing tips and tricks about the broken take down lever. The barrel slugged just a fraction larger than my M&P so I decided to try the same boolits. My pipsqueak loads shot great and no leading. 356-125FP sized .356 with 3.5 gr Unique. I don't have my notes in front of me so I'm not sure of the OAL.

[lar45]

Is yours 9mm Luger or 9mm Largo?
Mine is a Largo and the bore slugs at .358".
I modified my barrel to take 38 Super. I just had to cut a small step to fit the semi-rimmed case and tweak the feed lips of the mag a little.
It will feed and fire a mixed magazine of 9mm Largo, 38 Super and 9mm Luger. It will feed and fire 380, but it doesn't have the power to cycle the slide.
Yes I know the 9mm Luger is probabaly going to be hard on the extractor. I did it just to see if it would.

[Texantothecore]

I have a Star PD and it is a great pistol. It is a shame that Echeverria went out of business as everything they made was great.

[rintinglen]

I have a Super B 9mm Largo that I had about given up on, until I tried cast boolits in new Starline brass. Years ago,right after I bought the gun, I ordered 500 Largo casings from starline, but had nothing but trouble. 80 % of those cases failed on first firing, the only factory ammo I could find was CCI junk, I put it in the safe and more or less forgot about until last fall when I pulled it out and decided to give it a try. Rather than screw around with the surviving old brass, I ordered some new manufacture Starline, broke out my38 super dies, some Lyman 358-242 122 grainers and some Alliant Power Pistol.
It was a whole new ball game.! Brass was fine, function was perfect and accuracy was eminently acceptable.

I, too, regret the passing of Star. I have a Firestar that is a Dandy little piece. They were by far the cream of the Spanish Pistol Makers, much better than the Astra and LLama guns, IMO.

[Harry O]

I have both a Star Standard A and a Super A (9mm Largo) along with a Super B (9mm Luger). I never got a standard A because most of them went to Germany in WWII and they are collectors items (expensive). The Super models have a take-down lever on the right side of the gun. The inside looks much like a Browning 35 Hi-Power. The standard A and B do not have a take-down lever and looks much like a Colt 1911 inside.

I have been able to shoot a number of different cartridges in my Astra 400 9mm Largo, but the Stars I have are more picky. I can shoot .38ACP/Super brass in the Astra and Stars. I can shoot Winchester 9x23 brass in the Astra, but not the Stars. I was able to get some of the Starline brass a while back, and it works in both of them. I have shot a few 9mm Lugers in the Astra, but have not tried it in the Stars. I have read that doing that is hard on the extractor and getting parts for those guns today is difficult.

I originally used a .38 ACP set of dies for reloading. A few years back, I got a set of RCBS dies that were listed as being for 9mmLuger/9x21/9x23 cartridges. It works better.

Interestingly, the first 9mm Luger I ever shot was an Astra 400 that my Uncle owed (and still does, 40 years later). I used it to shoot clean through a rabbit and it ran away. I stayed with revolvers and lead bullets for a lot of years after that (a hot loaded .32 Long and a standard 32-20 would put rabbits down with certainty). Although his Astra was chambered in 9mm Largo, my Uncle never shot anything, but 9mm Luger in it -- and FMJ surplus at that. I gave him a couple of boxes of factory 9mm Largo ammo for Christmas a few years ago. I doubt that he has shot any of it.

[izzyjoe]

years ago before i reloaded my own, i passed on a star in 9mm largo. the price was real cheap, but i'd never heard of it and the guy said ammo was hard to find, but now i wish i had it. i'd convert it to shoot 38 super.

[gunfan]

That's mighty impressive!

Very nice.

Scott

[292]

Mine is a luger. I'm on the hunt for another one just like it.