Guns: A CCW Retrospective (Part 3)

One of the first used pistols I ever bought was a Star BM 9mm. As Stephen A. Camp's excellent review makes clear, the gun was inexpensive, but not "cheap." Star pistols were often used in Hollywood because of their obvious resemblance to the classic 1911-pattern, but internally, they have some key mechanical differences.

The BM was of a great size for concealed carry - very flat, with a just-big-enough handle that you could squeeze all of your fingers onto when firing. The sights were decent, similar to a GI 1911 but perhaps a bit bigger. My particular specimen had a good trigger. So far, so good...

Shooting it was a mixed experience. The hammer bit my hand pretty badly - worse than even a Browning Hi-Power. The piece would have the occasional fail-to-feed, which put it out of the running almost immediately. More vexing, though, was the cold hard facts associated with a surplus pistol like this; to put it simply, they ain't making any more of these, meaning that spare parts and spare mags might be hard to come by. For the price, it could have been a contender had it been reliable, though.