Star BM slide locking

[GunnSmokeer]

I suggested my friend buy a Star BM as his first and only defensive handgun. He wasn't willing to spend much money, and this one seems like a bargain to $200. And he was only interested in older military looking pistol so this one although it was made in the early 1980s for civilian or police use has the right look it is very similar in appearance to a Colt commander 1911.

THE PROBLEM: In handling the gun empty at home, about half of the time you attempt to cycle the slide manually (with no magazine in place) the slide will only move forward a centimeter after it reaches its full rearward position. The slide stops its forward movement prematurely, but the slide stop lever is not visibly raised.

The lever seems to be low and it does not appear to be engaging the slot milled into the slide, yet the slide *is* locked and pulling the slide back and releasing it a second time will not achieve anything --unless you manually push downward force on the slide stop lever!

When you do that, you don't feel the slide stop lever move, but something must move at least a couple thousands of an inch because at that point you can release the slide, and it then smoothly goes forward with no drag and locks into the firing position closed over the chamber.

I have not gotten together with my friend to strip the gun and carefully examine each part before I do that do y'all have any suggestions about what I should look for PS we fired this gun a year ago shortly after he got it we fired about 100 rounds of full metal jacket ammo and a dozen rounds of good defensive hollowpoint ammo there were no malfunctions. I dont know if the slide lock problem had been occurring a year ago. Maybe it was a problem back then but only in handling an empty gun, which we did not do? (after we bought it we took it to the range and tested it almost immediately. It has not been fired since then.)

 

[Jester896]

what does it do when you insert the mag?

 

[trial&error]

I'm not familiar with this model, but....There should be a spring that holds it down until the empty mag pushes it up. could be weak or have some kinda debris in there. Also it looks like a smaller frame, it could be a fat hands issue?

 

[AugustaDawg]

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/curioandrelicfirearmsforum/star-bm-slide-locking-back-t10052.html
See answer #3 above. Maybe this will help.

 

[GunnSmokeer]

Thanks.

My friend said he's going to bring the pistol over the next time he visits. We will take it apart and examine it, but before that we will test it with the empty magazine in, then the magazine out --maybe cycle some red dummy rounds.

 

[GunnSmokeer]

We examined the gun again this weekend. With the magazine out and the chamber empty, racking the slide manually caused it to jam and lock in place about 90% of the time when released. In other words the slide only went forward a little bit and stopped moving when it should've gone all the way forward and closed on the still-empty chamber.

When this happened, nothing seem to be pushing the slide stop lever upward, and in fact you can see from this picture it was not upward visibly nor was the projection or "tooth" in the slide stop lever corresponding to the notch in the slide.

 

[GunnSmokeer]

Putting an empty mag into the gun and then attempting to rack the slide seemed to work fine --the magazine follower pushed up the slide lock lever up from the inside, and it fully locked the action open as it should.

However, when trying to release the slide from this locked-open position (either just by shoving the lever down hard or removing the magazine from the gun and giving the slide a little flick) it would not release fully. It (the slide) would only move forward a few millimeters and then stop at the point shown in the photo above.

 

[GunnSmokeer]

We attempted to shoot the gun 16 times--2 magazines full of eight rounds each, 115 grain full metal jacket.

We stopped after having two different incidents of this jamming condition where the just-fired case would eject properly, but then the slide would lock after moving forward a short distance and not pick up the next round from the magazine.

 

[GunnSmokeer]

Pic of slide stop lever assembley.

 

[Skeeter XRi]

Not a gunsmith, just a tinkerer so don't put much weight on my thoughts here.

With the slide stop out and the barrel removed does the slide run freely on the frame? Do the rails of the slide or the frame appears damaged? Based on where it appears to be hanging up I would suspect either binding of the rails, maybe a bent ejector (assuming it's the same design as a 1911), or possibly binding of the link/locking lugs. I don't think the slide stop is the issue.

Please respond with what you find for future reference.

jim

 

[Jester896]

is the pin that goes through the barrel link straight?

 

[GunnSmokeer]

I tested the gun's Slide movement with the slide stop part
(1) pin engaged, but not the lever, not the rest of that part.
(2) the empty slide over the frame, with no cross pin, no barrel in place no guide rod or spring, no barrel bushing.


Test #1 resulted in the slide stopping at the same point it did last week, about half of the time. I tried rotating the slide lock lever into different orientations of 30 or 40° movements and none of them produced a smooth cycle of the slide that had no sticking or jamming point.

Test #2 showed no problems! Without any of those parts in the gun, the slide smoothly went back-and-forth across the frame, the rails seemed to have a good fit.

 

[GunnSmokeer]

The cross-pin that is integral to the slide lock part has a couple of flat spots on it.
At first I thought they might be the problem , but then I loosened that part and rotated it in several different orientations-- therefore these two flat spots were at different points:
facing up,
down,
and even forward,
it did not change the problem.

P.S. should I polish the pin to get rid of these 2 worn spots?

 

[trial&error]

Try it upside down, or Pull the slide and see if something is lower than it should be.

 

[GunnSmokeer]

unusual wear marks on the barrel's locking lugs and the corresponding slots milled into the underside of the slide tell me the issue is "timing" -- the barrel's swiveling link and how the barrel is forced upward to mate with the slide ONLY at a particular point during the slide's return-to-battery movement.

Now, I need to figure out what I can do about this. This looks like some serious Gunsmith stuff.

 

[trial&error]

6 months of tinkering probably time to bring in an expert.

 

[Dub]

I suggested my friend buy a Star BM as his first and only defensive handgun.

Are you deeply experienced with these ?

Wondering why you suggested this particular gun ?

 

[Jester896]

Heads up! my fellow Star BM owners, check your Slide Stop! - The Firing Line Forums

Heads up! my fellow Star BM owners, check your Slide Stop! Handguns: The Semi-automatic Forum

thefiringline.com

 

[GunnSmokeer]

Jester-- Thanks for the to that thread but the slide stop is not the problem. The binding / jamming happens even with the slide stop completely removed from the gun and just a nail running through the frame and the barrel's swivel link.

Dub-- I has a Star BKM In the late 1980s and it was very reliable with ball ammo (after doing a feed ramp polish it would work with just some brands of hollowpoint that had a rather rounded tip and a small hole in the nose.)

My friend had never owned a handgun before and he wanted one now, but he wasn't going to buy one unless it met three qualifications:

1-- number one it had to be inexpensive.

2-- it had to have Military heritage, and an older style. Old-school milsurp would be ideal.


3-- it had to be medium sized, not a pocket gun nor a full-size duty or service pistol.