This is often a problem on guns where someone has sat on a gun that was laying on a car seat (or something similar happened, eg heavy luggage put on top of a soft-sided gun case that was on an uneven surface), and the buttstock tried to bend sideways. That’s what I thought you meant – the stud/receiver area.
You said it was “right up to the receiver” – and in some older shotguns, the tangs or bolt studs start to crack right at where they meet up with the receiver. If you want a blast from the past don’t let one slip past you.įrom your comment, it wasn’t clear that it was in the wood. But that doesn’t mean you should overlook a PD 45 if you spot one in your local gun store’s case or on a table at a show. Parts are hard to find as are magazines since Star has been gone for 20 years now. The average price for one is good condition is about $450.
Today, these old school classics are gaining popularity again in collector circles. PD were the initials of Pete Dickey an Interarms employee (the US importer of Star pistols) who submitted the original design idea for the pistol to Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. But even in retirement, both my father and the pistol get to relive their glory days occasionally.Ī common misconception is that the “PD” in the name stands for “Police Department.” Nope. Today my father is retired and the Star PD 45 has also been relegated to the safe. As a Homicide Detective who worked cases putting drug dealers away, he wanted something that packed a punch, wouldn’t quit, and could keep his kid safe.īack then, the drug cartels had no issues going after cops, especially when some of their hit men were dirty cops themselves. My father carried the Star PD 45 as his off duty piece during the height of Miami’s cocaine drug wars. My particular Star PD was used as an off duty carry piece back in the late 1970s by my very own father when he was a plain clothes detective in Miami.Īccuracy back then was just as good as it is today. Most semi-autos would choke on anything that wasn’t hardball and that meant that the 9mm wasn’t the best choice for law enforcement work. Remember that back then ammunition wasn’t what it is today.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, the Star PD 45 was a very popular piece for plain clothes police work and personal protection. Jeff Cooper, April 1975 in Guns & Ammo magazineĪs a carry piece, though it truly excels. “A gun to be carried much and fired little” – Col. Jeff Cooper loved it for its intended role - combat-capable CCW pistol. Star frames are known to crack if their buffers aren’t replaced regularly. While the PD 45 is an impressive carry gun, it’s not built for hours and hours of range time and tens of thousands or rounds put through it. The recoil spring has a plastic recoil bushing to keep the abuse down on the pistol’s aluminum frame during firing.Īnd that aluminum frame is the pistol’s one flaw. There’s a removable barrel bushing like a 1911 and the PD 45 has no grip safety like a Hi-Power. No need to manually line up the slide and awkwardly hold it there as with a 1911. Just like the Hi-Power, the slide is retracted and the safety is engaged in the takedown notch, then the slide stop pin is pushed out. The layout and ergonomics of the gun scream 1911 but the field stripping and design are more reminiscent of the Browning Hi-Power. It sported adjustable rear sights, a polished feed ramp and a fantastic trigger.
Weighing in at 25oz and having a capacity of 6+1, the Star PD was advanced for its era. But from 1975 to 1990, Star turned out the estimable PD 45, a fantastic little gem of a pistol.Ī Colt commander-size 1911 and a compact Star PD 45 Star Bonifacio Echeverria started making guns in 1905 and sadly went out of business in 1997 with the end of the Cold War and the downturn in the European arms market. That company was Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. In 1975, a company in my ancestral home of España (Spain) released to the shooting community what was then one of the most desired handguns in the world.