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I bought a Star Firestar M45 early year, was a police confiscated resale, and fell in love. It's been pretty much perfect with exception of a firingpin shroud cracking. It still worked even with the block only 3/4 full, but in name of safety I found a replacement online and for less than $20 shipped and problem solved, has continued to perform flawlessly.
So I started my hunt for the M43, as a little brother. Found one that looked fantastic, almost new, and bought for about $250/275. Yeah, I learned a lesson in buying used online, because since the day I got it, it had jamming issues. About one every clip it would fail to eject, then, as time went on, it failed to extract that same one. Finally, I got fed up and decided to take it to a smith.
A local dealer reccommended Rich's, as they're close to where I live. I dropped it with the guy at the sales counter, along with a brand new set of Wolff springs, 2lb extra stiff, and a box of WWB I use in it. The smith put the springs in and fired about 30 rounds without a hiccup. He decided to give it another go just to be sure. The next mag proved problem remained. Now I knew, by this time, after purchase and through my searches online, that parts for this particular model are nonexistent. So I expected some fab work might be required.
Guy called, quoted $125 for parts and labor of pieces needing work. It needed a reshaping of the extractor and deburring of chamber. I was okay with that, however he then mentioned that didn't include the time he spent diagnosing the problem. Seemed odd to me, any car shop I go to just waives that fee if I get work done there, especially when diagnosis is him shooting my gun, that's not work!!! Haha, but whatever, I wanted my baby back and it was already there. So okay. Half hour later guy calls, job done, he also had to stiffen up the extractor or ejector spring and mag needed replacing. Total was $245.
I was shocked, sounded high, but whatever, was in need of second magazine anyway, figued I could fix the bad one with a new spring. Then he said, due to it being fab work on older parts, he couldn't guaranty the work at all, but that it was firing with the abilities of a new gun, throwing the shells like seeds at a watermelon seed spitting contest.
Now, range report, it's a champ. Feeds everything, spits brass a mile, and, the old mag was perfectly fine. The spring was in wrong, I simply turned it around and it works fine. Hahahaha
This is not a negative experience at all, even with the expense and novice diagnosis on the magazine. We'll see how things hold up over time, but if I even get another 5 years out of it I'll be a very happy man. I mean, I can't really blame anyone here but me. I bought the lemon without paying attention to the sellers transaction history and questioning the quality of the firearm. I took the gamble there, as well as in buying a product from a defunct company with no parts readily available. So chalk it up to a lesson learned and, thankfully, a redeemed mistake thanks to the great smithing at Rich's Gun Shop!
Would be interested in hearing others' experiences. I read about how long they take in a google search, but that seems due to sheer volume of smith work they get. Like I said in my post, once he actually got to it he was done in under an hour.
Sent from my SGH-T849 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SGH-T849 using Tapatalk
So I started my hunt for the M43, as a little brother. Found one that looked fantastic, almost new, and bought for about $250/275. Yeah, I learned a lesson in buying used online, because since the day I got it, it had jamming issues. About one every clip it would fail to eject, then, as time went on, it failed to extract that same one. Finally, I got fed up and decided to take it to a smith.
A local dealer reccommended Rich's, as they're close to where I live. I dropped it with the guy at the sales counter, along with a brand new set of Wolff springs, 2lb extra stiff, and a box of WWB I use in it. The smith put the springs in and fired about 30 rounds without a hiccup. He decided to give it another go just to be sure. The next mag proved problem remained. Now I knew, by this time, after purchase and through my searches online, that parts for this particular model are nonexistent. So I expected some fab work might be required.
Guy called, quoted $125 for parts and labor of pieces needing work. It needed a reshaping of the extractor and deburring of chamber. I was okay with that, however he then mentioned that didn't include the time he spent diagnosing the problem. Seemed odd to me, any car shop I go to just waives that fee if I get work done there, especially when diagnosis is him shooting my gun, that's not work!!! Haha, but whatever, I wanted my baby back and it was already there. So okay. Half hour later guy calls, job done, he also had to stiffen up the extractor or ejector spring and mag needed replacing. Total was $245.
I was shocked, sounded high, but whatever, was in need of second magazine anyway, figued I could fix the bad one with a new spring. Then he said, due to it being fab work on older parts, he couldn't guaranty the work at all, but that it was firing with the abilities of a new gun, throwing the shells like seeds at a watermelon seed spitting contest.
Now, range report, it's a champ. Feeds everything, spits brass a mile, and, the old mag was perfectly fine. The spring was in wrong, I simply turned it around and it works fine. Hahahaha
This is not a negative experience at all, even with the expense and novice diagnosis on the magazine. We'll see how things hold up over time, but if I even get another 5 years out of it I'll be a very happy man. I mean, I can't really blame anyone here but me. I bought the lemon without paying attention to the sellers transaction history and questioning the quality of the firearm. I took the gamble there, as well as in buying a product from a defunct company with no parts readily available. So chalk it up to a lesson learned and, thankfully, a redeemed mistake thanks to the great smithing at Rich's Gun Shop!
Would be interested in hearing others' experiences. I read about how long they take in a google search, but that seems due to sheer volume of smith work they get. Like I said in my post, once he actually got to it he was done in under an hour.
Sent from my SGH-T849 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SGH-T849 using Tapatalk
