Star BM, Star BKS and Ruger SP101 stuff

[graycrait]

. The three pistols that look the same are essentially the same. Upper left and lower right hand are two all-steel Star BM 9mm, both repainted. Upper left hand corner is a Star BKS Starlight 9mm. The BKS has an aluminum frame. I am fortunate to have 5 magazines, several extra firing pins, an extra trigger and trigger bar and some small springs to keep these long discontinued pistols running. The black Star in the upper left has after market combat sights, requiring the slide to have been nicely milled to accommodate those sight bases.

b. The 2.25" Ruger SP101 .357 sports a Trausch grip made in France. This is the best 25.00 you can spend on a SP101. It makes the gun point flat fast. More comfortable than either the Hogue or stock Ruger grip. Allows easy speed loader use. See the material built up at the top of the grip, beneath the hammer? That makes the gun point flat naturally, just like a 1911 with a flat mainspring housing or my own carved up Glocks and will remind some of pointing a HK P7.

[A.J. Holst]

+1 on the Trausch grips for an SP

Slightly bigger than the Hogue mono, but so worth it.

For me, almost feels like a custom grip.

Gray,

How do does a 9mm feel through a weight / action of 1911 frame?

When I started researching 1911s, I saw the RIA in 9mm and had seriously considered it.

[graycrait]

I have a RIA 9mm 1911 and have had two other Government sized 9mm 1911s, one a Dan Wesson Pointman 9 and the other some Armscor .38 Super that I "converted" to 9mm on the cheap. I like the RIA better than the other two.

I have a wealthy friend who has more guns than I can count. He does all sorts of interesting things like test ballistics through gelatin, wraps beef or hog ribs in denim, shoots through wet packs, car doors, etc. Modern 9mm and .38 Spl and .357 knock the socks off of .45 ACP in terms of penetration and expansion. Most JHP .45ACP fail to properly expand and penetrate.

A 9mm 1911 is an easy shooting thing. I have another friend who built his own custom 1911 9mm using KART barrel, etc. Another friend of mine, retired Special Forces Warrant Officer, has an RIA 9mm 1911 and he is so stoked he thinks he needs a high dollar 9mm 1911, but won't sell his RIA.

You can go hot and cold ammo by changing recoil springs. I don't find shooting .45ACP daunting but the 9mm definitely has a different feel, but easily managed one handed if necessary. I like the 9mm 1911 because I like to shoot as cheap as possible with a caliber that is capable enough. I actually prefer shooting the Star BM or my Glocks over the 1911 9mm, but feel I need to keep one 1911 around just because. And I like the 9mm 1911 over the BHP, even considering capacity advantage with the BHP. The trigger mechanism of both the BHP and CZ are the only things I don't particularly like about either of those pistols except for the CZ SA straight trigger. However, with a 1911 the triggers are their strong point and there are a zillion other parts available for the 1911 so it is easy to keep one running foreever, not so with discontinued pistols with somewhat odd designs like some of my favorites. It is an easy pistol for my wife to shoot.

Craig