THE STAR PD: Compact Firepower

I bought my Star PD pistol in 1976, after reading an article by Colonel Cooper in which he praised it highly. Actually I had a bad experience with Star pistols previously. While trying out a Starlight 9mm the pistol blew up in my hands. [This was captured on photo by John Clark]



In his article the Colonel mentioned the doubtful metallurgy of some Spanish pistols, and has cautioned that the PD should probably " be carried much, but shot little"



Out of the box, the PD had a very nice finish, on both the steel slide and alloy frame; decent wooden grips, and two chunky magazines. Sights are low-profile and adjustable. The safety catch extended sufficiently for fast operation. In short, many of the features that we had to add aftermarket on our Colts.



Shooting the PD was a delight. Although compact [7" overall, with a barrel just under 4"] the weapon fitted my rather large hands perfectly. Although light, just under 26oz, the recoil was by no means intimidating. If you could shoot the Colt, you could handle the Star.
I must admit I ignored the Colonel's advice to shoot it seldom, and put thousands of rounds through that little gun. I'm not exaggerating. From 1976 until I bought my first 9mm in about 1981 I shot only .45s; using my two Colts and the PD. And I shot a lot. I regularly loaned the pistol to people on training courses, where 500 rounds were required, and it worked a treat. All the ammo I used was full power loads, usually 200gr SWC. That little Spanish pistol just kept on going, with no signs of a problem.



By the way, the PD also fed the famed  Speer "flying ashtray" hollowpoint perfectly.
I obtained a quantity of Norma hollowpoint ammo, which was quite hot. After a few rounds for testing I reserved this factory load as carry ammo, and it filled the Star magazines for several years.


[Speer Hollowpoints]




In 1982 I made my first working visit to America, and, as soon as I had a free day, made a beeline for a Miami gunshop, where I purchased a set of Pachmayr grips for the Star.



There was a generous thumb rest on the grip, which was totally unecessary, and blocked access to the mag release catch. As you can see in the above photo, the bump was eliminated with a Dremel tool. A bit unsightly, but necessary.

I liked those rubber stocks a lot, and had them on several weapons over the years.
By the way, those chunky magazines proved very reliable.



The follower had a lot of stability, and feeding was flawless. In South Africa I found a mag extender [preceding the concept of the "+2 extension" for the Glock] which added an extra round, giving a capacity of seven, rather than six rounds in the tube. Curiously, I have never seen any reference to this accessory in the literature, but it worked well.
The only problem I experienced was a sharp spot on the left tang, which bit into the hand during recoil. By no means a major concern, and one that had I ever decided to have the frame re-finished would have been cured with a few strokes of a file.
General advice was to replace the reciol buffer every thousand rounds, or so. I replaced it once, and it continued to work fine.

As may be expected, the compact design lent itself well to covert carriage.



My favourite holster was the Summer Special made specifically for the PD by Milt Sparks.



The PD mags don't fit standard Colt pouches, so I had a variety of pouches specifically for the Star; including this Price-Western design....



A few years ago Clint was looking at adding another pistol to his battery, and was considering the PD. I told him of how well it worked for me, he bought one, and was delighted.

In 1988 I used the PD on the Advanced API Course taught by Colonel Cooper.... it seemed kind of appropriate:



I continued shooting the PD until the UK handgun ban. I fired the last rounds through it in August 1996