Star Pistol Model 9, WWII German issue 1942-1944

ok, here's mine. Have to start by saying I'm disappointed. Compared to the guns others are getting and posting about, mine is below average IMHO. When I talked to Lever, I asked for handpick and specified "clear markings", which they clearly ignored despite agreeing over the phone.

Mine is heavily buffed. Half the "star" symbol is gone (buffed off), proof marks on the slide totally gone. The slide serrations all have flats on them, not points, from the excessive buffing. What remains of the roll stamp is REALLY shallow and all the engess are pretty rounded over from the buffing wheel.

My grips are more black than brown with worn checkering and really oil soaked. Buggered up wood around the screws and the grips are a bit warped and not sitting totally flat.

Mine has an audible rattle when I shake the gun side to side, BEFORE I have cleaned it. I want to say 1.5mm or so of perceptible end-shake. The lanyard ring looks to be a cheap bent wire replacement, and it fell off when I unpacked the gun.

Totally buffed and blued, all parts. Every part renumbered, though the slide and barrel are original to each other.

Seriously considering sending it back. What do you guys think? Keep or reject?





 
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PS: It's from the 2/12/43 bulgarian contract.

Check these pics out. That word is supposed to be CHEVERRIA, not CHEVCEPP A.



These are supposed to be slide firing proofs... and that word is supposed to be "CAL".



Yes, there should be a lanyard loop there.



Anyhoo, I called the vendor and they asks me to send photos.
 
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I'd be tempted to exchange it for another if they'll let you. You asked for clear markings specifically and it was supposed to be handpicked.

Still a cool pistol but not what you wanted.
 
When buying Milsurps generally i prefer to visit the dealer in person, obviously not always possible but something i always try to do even if its a road trip. I believe when the russians refinished these they intended for them to shoot, not to collect, always something to keep in mind.
 
For all you know that was Lever Arms' best one... lol

I never walk in with high expectations when it comes to Russian Capture and just surplus in general.
 
Fair comment! Maybe it was the best they had left.

When I talked to the guy on the phone today he said he remembered me calling and thought he had picked out a really nice one with clear markings. I sent him pics like he asked so he could see my concerns, maybe my order got mixed up?

I'm not trying to slag the dealer - this pistol may well be representative and the other posters got exceptional examples. We'll see what they say, but it missing the lanyard loop is a real downer for me. I collect things like this, I don't buy them to shoot and they need to be complete as a minimum.

For most shooting, I have modern high-end guns.

In any event, hopefully my post will moderate people's expectations compared to the nicer examples posted :)
 
CanadianAR said:
That one looks pretty rough. If you asked for and prehaps payed for handpick, I'd send it back.....also not from the german contract......
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I didn't pay extra for HP. I offered to, but the salesperson said there was no handpick fee and he's try to accomodate my request. I would be less upset if every other picture of a Lever Arms Star I've found around the net didn't have much better slide markings than mine.

Funny b/c when I talked to the guy originally he commented that most people ask for matching numbers, not crisp roll stamps. I told him I understood these were all renumbered anyhow, I just wanted crisp markings ;)
 
so how did the russians end up with them? to my (limited) knowledge, no bulgarian troops participated in the invasion of the soviet union. i know the red army invaded bulgaria in 1944, but seeing as how bulgaria switched sides, how did their pistols end up in russia? or were they refurbished in bulgaria along with the M95's?
 
Bulgaria was subjected to a Soviet puppet government after the war and were ruled in all but name by the Soviets. I'm guessing they exchanged their nazi era stuff for warsaw pact common weaponry after the war.
 
CanadianAR said:
That one looks pretty rough. If you asked for and prehaps payed for handpick, I'd send it back.....also not from the german contract......
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So far none of them that have been posted here or on other Canadian gun boards are German issued. It would appear that someone stole the description of the Star Model B (08) from another American gun forum. The description is only part of a large piece of text, and is a direct quote from that other forum. Copy some of the description, and paste it into a google search and you should find it.

Lever and Frontier have the same exact description. I would assume some one got them, did a two second search and just regurgitated what they found, not actually determining anything more than the one post.

Too common on the internet.
 
Claven, here are pics of my engravings. The A in CAL is like yours. But the rest of the engravings appear stronger. No rattles either, and no safety engagement issues. Mine is also from Lever Arms. Depending on the cost to return it, and who takes the hit for that, it might be worth seeing if you can upgrade. That is the difficulty of buying milsurp stuff unseen. I'm always worried when I do, but still manage to keep doing it haha.

IMG_4751_zps5f156cdf.jpg


IMG_4752_zpsec7912db.jpg
 
Claven2 said:
Bulgaria was subjected to a Soviet puppet government after the war and were ruled in all but name by the Soviets. I'm guessing they exchanged their nazi era stuff for warsaw pact common weaponry after the war.
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maybe the soviets gathered them up with the idea of stirring the pot in one or another of spain's african colonies. ah well, just speculation. hope you guys enjoy them.
 
fenceline said:
Claven, here are pics of my engravings. The A in CAL is like yours. But the rest of the engravings appear stronger. No rattles either, and no safety engagement issues. Mine is also from Lever Arms. Depending on the cost to return it, and who takes the hit for that, it might be worth seeing if you can upgrade. That is the difficulty of buying milsurp stuff unseen. I'm always worried when I do, but still manage to keep doing it haha.
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Yes, yours is in much better nick. Looks like a keeper.
 
As an update, Lever offered to take the gun back and replace it with one that's not missing parts. Very quick response and very fair outcome IMHO. I'll be sending it back ;)
 
Yeah, I have to cover the shipping to return mine and ship the replacement, but from their perspective, it's a used surplus gun and they could have told me to pound sand, no matter what may have been promised me on the phone and not in writing. It's real nice of them to try and select one that's more to my expectations.
 
Glad to hear it is working out for you Claven. Sucks about shipping, but as you say that is the risk you run buying milsurps sight unseen. Then again, a check by staff before shipping goes a long way.

Hope the second act is a better one for you. I really like mine. My second milsurp pistol after my TT33. I'd buy another if it was in good condition. A german if I could find one.
 
Just FYI, if you follow the link on the first post you will note that they fit the German contract pistols correctly, correct markings etc. They did not get the eagle stamped on them, the same Google searches will bring up info on these correct Star Pistols. As much as I dislike Lever Arms, I don't think they would post what it is without verifying, they also sourced them.

fenceline; you will see your as the Ñ with the tilde above, correct for German issue marking. We do need to remember these are war manufacture, issue, refurbed, not going to be like new. The Russian, German late war all where not finished well.

http://star-firearms.com/firearms/guns/b/index.shtml he does say some grey areas, but evidence is strong.




fenceline said:
So far none of them that have been posted here or on other Canadian gun boards are German issued. It would appear that someone stole the description of the Star Model B (08) from another American gun forum. The description is only part of a large piece of text, and is a direct quote from that other forum. Copy some of the description, and paste it into a google search and you should find it.

Lever and Frontier have the same exact description. I would assume some one got them, did a two second search and just regurgitated what they found, not actually determining anything more than the one post.

Too common on the internet.
Click to expand...
 
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Forty4Forty said:
Just FYI, if you follow the link on the first post you will note that they fit the German contract pistols correctly, correct markings etc. They did not get the eagle stamped on them, the same Google searches will bring up info on these correct Star Pistols. As much as I dislike Lever Arms, I don't think they would post what it is without verifying, they also sourced them.

fenceline; you will see your as the Ñ with the tilde above, correct for German issue marking. We do need to remember these are war manufacture, issue, refurbed, not going to be like new. The Russian, German late war all where not finished well.

http://star-firearms.com/firearms/guns/b/index.shtml he does say some grey areas, but evidence is strong.
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The Ñ is a Spanish marking, made at the factory and not specific to German made guns. The Ñ is a date stamping, indicating 1943 production only. My basis for there only being Bulgarian issued guns so far, is the factory records that show the serial numbers for each shipment to Bulgaria. The Spaniards kept good records, and have over the years released them.

So far all the guns spoken about have been reported to have Bulgarian serial numbers. When someone finds a serial number that falls outside the Bulgarian contracts, maybe then we can start looking into whether or not it falls into the German production runs.

The link you posted has the text that both Lever Arms and Frontier have copied, word for word, onto their sites as advertising for the Model B(08) guns they are selling. The article doesn't say that the N, Ñ or O are German markings, it says they are date stamps to use when determining the genre of Model B a person may have. The Model B was not made only during WW2.

If I were to look for a German issued model, I would first attempt to find a version with a serial number that falls outside the Bulgarian contract. Even that wouldn't confirm a German gun, but it would at least not be Bulgarian, which would be a start.
 
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