Modern Classic: Star Model BM 9mm Pistol

Once upon a time there was a company called Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. manufacturing guns in the beautiful country of Spain before they fell to the evils of socialism. Back in the day, some of the Star firearms were considered sexy, while some were honestly described as funky looking. Many of the Star pistols appeared to be licensed copies of popular models, such as the M1911A1. 

While defunct since 1997, Star firearms were imported by at least four companies into the United States: Garcia Sporting Arms, Interarms, PW Arms, and Century International Arms. The Star Model BM pistol featured here had Century International Arms roll-stamped onto the receiver, well it actually says “C.I.A. Georgia, Vermont”, but it was no doubt an older Century import. 

Star Model BM 9x19mm

While we can guess the initials “BM” in español might be common or mundane, in English, the moniker “BM” would seem rather unfortunate. Nonetheless, Star produced a full-sized M1911A1 replica in 9mm and called it the Model B. Therefore, the Model BM was the compact version of the larger pistol. According to records, the BM was only manufactured for twenty years, from 1972 to 1992, that’s a rather short run. Despite that fact, the BM saw combat in Libya, Rhodesia and South Africa.  

Akin to the Officers Model of the famed M1911A1, the Star BM is a true single-action, semi-automatic handgun that borrowed most of its features from John Browning’s classic pistol. If a person were to just see the silhouette of the BM, it would be easy enough to confuse it with a Colt pistol.

Controls on the BM are true 1911, with a manual safety on the left side, a magazine release button, and slide lock, both of which look very much like the classic Colt. The gun even has a spur hammer like the OG models. The trigger is curved and serrated as well. As for the extractor, it is external, not internal like the M1911A1. 

On the inside you will discover that the barrel uses the M1911A1 barrel-link design. There is a barrel bushing, but the recoil plug was replaced by a captivated recoil spring on a spring guide. Despite that slight difference, the gun comes apart in a similar fashion to the parent pistol for cleaning and lubrication. The grips are held in place by flathead screws and made of black polymer. The construction is all-steel; barrel, slide and frame bringing the empty weight to 34 ounces. It’s quite the chunker for a compact pistol, but that weight will pay off on the range.

An 8-round single stack magazine feeds the action and, unfortunately, as the Europeans are fond of doing, Star put a magazine disconnect in the gun. That feature keeps mags from dropping free. Back during WWII and even during the Cold War, Europeans seemed to have this nagging fear that soldiers were going to drop their magazines and lose them. When the Star BM locks open on empty, your support hand is needed to pull out the empty mag. 

The pistol you see here came in the original box, long since lost, with three magazines from Century. Obviously a well-used gun, a good percentage of the original finish had worn in the typical places. I decided to dress the old pistol up with a new Duracoat finish and the one I chose was their DuraMetl “Bronzy Osbourne”, a dark, metallic bronze color. 

Range Time

While a true 9x19mm pistol which should alleviate feeding anxiety, I wanted to test out several different loads to include the Black Hills 124 grain JHP, their 125 grain Honeybadger, Federal 147 grain Hydra-Shoks, and a bunch of FMJ with brass, aluminum, and steel cases. In the year 2026, the youngest the gun could be was 34 years old or it could be as old as 54. While not as old as I, it’s definitely up there. 

There were two major standouts, first the trigger press weight was not what you would expect from a surplus European gun. I put my trigger gauge on it and found the average weight was 3.75 pounds! Having been out of production for more than three decades, I don’t know if that was typical or if my pistol was unique. As a foreign import, I highly doubt that the guys at Century deliberately tinkered with it. The second stand out was reliability, with the BM consuming all of the aforementioned loads without a hiccup.

Atop the slide are fixed, old school steel sights. If you really needed to alter the windage, you would need a hammer and a punch or a sight-pusher. From a modern perspective, the front sight is rather low, thus making shots impact high. Knowing what I know about 20th century shooters and gun makers, there is a very real chance that this gun was built with the old “six o’clock” sight hold in mind.

From ten yards, I found that rounds were impacting about two inches above my point of aim. The farther away from the target, the more pronounced. To be fair, we cannot imagine that the gun’s makers thought their end user was going to be taking 25 yards shots with the compact handgun. 

The pistol fit nicely into an M1911A1 leather holster from Galco Gunleather and I used matching single-stack mag holders. The set up allowed me to truly work some skills on the range.  

As far as the “feel”, the 34 ounces of steel kept the mild 9mm, even the hot JHP loads, right on target. Rapid shooting was a breeze and the gun was a joy to shoot. All three magazines proved reliable. My ten yard group on paper was not “match tight”, but certainly good for an old pistol the round count of which I have no way of knowing. 

While the Star BM pistols are a rare find now, the ones on the online sites are not overly expensive. If you stumble across one, you could do worse. If you have one languishing in your safe, now might be the time to dust it off.     

 

Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.