Star drum magazine

gmerkt · May 18, 2025

I've never seen one of these. A drum magazine for a Star Model BM (let's be adult about this model designation).

star bm magazine | eBay

Star Bm magazine made of all steel has not been function checked found at a local show but don’t know how to load & does slides in and clicks in place with ease sold as-is no returns on this item I can fit about 71” in the lower portion just don’t know how to load the tower which is why it’s...

www.ebay.com

Note that it says, "for parts or not working."

BillM · May 18, 2025

Believe that may be a PPSh-41 drum with a tower made from a Star magazine. Doesn't work, but yet it sold on Ebay for twice the price of functional PPSh-41 drums.

gmerkt · May 19, 2025

BillM said:
Believe that may be a PPSh-41 drum with a tower made from a Star magazine. Doesn't work, but yet it sold on Ebay for twice the price of functional PPSh-41 drums.

I believe you're right about that. No wonder I've never seen one before. But then again, there are lots of things I've never seen. In this case, closer examination of the pictures shows the tower welded on post original manufacture. And wear on the original mounting points shows that would never occur if this had been used exclusively on a pistol. Thanks for the insight.

We don't get to see much SMG or MG stuff up here in Wash. It's been outlawed for years. I don't count my army experience for this discussion. But when I was younger, I used to see them once in a while when I lived in Calif. A couple of my boyhood pals had DEWATs. Such as a German MP-44. And a Thompson SMG, the WW2 version. One day, these two guys came over with the Thompson. One of them had a .45 ACP cartridge, he said, "Watch this." Whereupon he dropped it down the barrel. The whole thing, case and all. He then said, "How do you explain that?" I didn't know how. Then he told me that the gun had a turned-down .50 BMG section installed vice the original .45 bbl. At the time, we were under the erroneous impression that it was okay to have a DEWAT without papers. I believe we were wrong. I made a swap for a Russian 50mm mortar one time, another guy bought a German Panzerschreck in a swap shop. To this day, I don't know if those were legal at the time (1960's). But I don't think they are now. I don't think the mortar was DEWAT. I wouldn't have any idea how it got to the States, except as a Korean War or possibly early Vietnam war smuggled bring-back.

I did run into a guy at a local indoor gun range some years ago. He was a firearms dealer and was shooting some kind of Smith & Wesson SMG. But that is a rare thing in my neighborhood.