I saw a Star BM 9mm in pretty good aesthetic (no dings or scratches, but some rust) condition and barely fired at a gun shop two days ago, so yesterday I went in and picked it up for $175. Very little internal wear.
I'd bought it with the intent of refinishing it (not sure what I'm going to do, yet), and possibly carrying it IWB. So, a couple questions:
1) It appears as if the firing pin isn't retained by the safety, and that it can be compressed while the hammer is back by a bump of the firing pin or a rough jostle. Am I correct in this, or is the design safe for condition 1 carry? It appears as if it was carried with the hammer at half-cock (as indicated by wear).
2) Is this a forged (ie consistent strength throughout) or surface-hardened machined gun? Would it be safe to sand or otherwise remove the surface layers of metal to get it down to bare metal, allowing me to re-finish it?
3) Should I have any problem with JHP rounds in it? The feed ramp looks like it might catch (I've not had a chance to shoot it yet.)
4) Is it legal to remove the import pin rollstamp? It's fugly.
5) My receiver appears to have two serials - one vertically along the left side's plastic grip, and the other (which matches the serial of the slide) is parallel to the slide on the right side. What's the deal? The one on the left appears to be the same age as the one on the right (ie I odn't think it was added by CAI during import or anything).
6) Finally, are there aftermarket replacement parts for this pistol? I'm thinking a keyhole hammer might be nice.
Overall, I'm pretty excited: I feel like I've gotten something of quite a bit more value than the Springfield EMP, and once I get it cleaned up, it'll be "mine".
I'd bought it with the intent of refinishing it (not sure what I'm going to do, yet), and possibly carrying it IWB. So, a couple questions:
1) It appears as if the firing pin isn't retained by the safety, and that it can be compressed while the hammer is back by a bump of the firing pin or a rough jostle. Am I correct in this, or is the design safe for condition 1 carry? It appears as if it was carried with the hammer at half-cock (as indicated by wear).
2) Is this a forged (ie consistent strength throughout) or surface-hardened machined gun? Would it be safe to sand or otherwise remove the surface layers of metal to get it down to bare metal, allowing me to re-finish it?
3) Should I have any problem with JHP rounds in it? The feed ramp looks like it might catch (I've not had a chance to shoot it yet.)
4) Is it legal to remove the import pin rollstamp? It's fugly.
5) My receiver appears to have two serials - one vertically along the left side's plastic grip, and the other (which matches the serial of the slide) is parallel to the slide on the right side. What's the deal? The one on the left appears to be the same age as the one on the right (ie I odn't think it was added by CAI during import or anything).
6) Finally, are there aftermarket replacement parts for this pistol? I'm thinking a keyhole hammer might be nice.
Overall, I'm pretty excited: I feel like I've gotten something of quite a bit more value than the Springfield EMP, and once I get it cleaned up, it'll be "mine".
