When did the age of the single stack 9mm pistols start? Specifically, 9mm single stacks are designed for concealed carry. We had years and years of Smith & Wesson Model 39s, Lugers, and Walthers in 9mm parabellum that use single stack magazines, but they weren’t really made for concealed carry.
A lot of people point to the Walther PPS as a progenitor, and others to the S&W Shield as the gun that kicked off the trend. However, one of the earliest examples of a single stack 9mm handgun designed for carry was the Star Firestar M43.
The M43 and The Spanish Firearms Industry
Star is a Spanish company, and while the arms industry is seemingly dead in Spain, there are plenty of remnants of the imports that made it this way. The thing about Spanish pistols is that they were never necessarily innovative. The most common theme amongst Spanish pistols was to take an established, working design, improve or change it slightly, and release a different gun. Even their names were similar…but different. I mean c’mon they used company names like Star and Astra.
We see this with the Spanish MAB pistols, which were just copies of French MAB pistols. Llama famously produced many 1911 copies in various calibers and with changes like the removal of the grip safeties. The Firestar doesn’t do anything especially innovative. When Wiley Clapp reviewed the KelTec P-3AT back in 2003, he said, “Ingenuity is often nothing more than a combination of existing principles applied in unique ways.”
Don’t Call the M43 A 1911
‘A combination of existing principles’ describes the M43 Firestar perfectly. The M43 is a single-action-only gun with a 1911-like appearance. The gun has an ambidextrous safety, but no grip safety. It has a firing pin safety, and the lockwork is a fair bit different than that of a 1911. They’ve shrunk the dimensions and it’s much smaller than most compact 1911 designs.
It has four locking surfaces, three on the barrel and another on the barrel over the chamber. The barrel is also enlarged at the front with a bell-like shape. It’s part of Star’s AccuLine system which promises accurate alignment. The system also doesn’t need a barrel bushing with that thick bell-like barrel.
It’s a single-stack 9mm handgun first produced in the 1980s. The weapon held seven rounds in its magazine and assumed a subcompact roll. The weapon is 6.5 inches long, 1.10 inches wide, and has a 3.39-inch barrel. The Firestar is all steel, which brings the weight to 1.88 pounds, making it heavier than a GLOCK 19.
A Sleeper Hit
Upon its premiere, the Firestar gained a lot of good notices in the gun media. Reviews were positive and the increased popularity of concealed carry was just taking off. In 1991, Guns & Ammo gave it their Handgun of the Year award. Despite that, it wasn’t a big seller and Star was already on shaky ground financially. They produced the pistols for several years, but it couldn’t save the floundering company and Star went out of business.
After Star shut down, the M43 rose in popularity, primarily due to the rise of modern concealed carry laws. However, they were only available on the used market, but they offered a unique option for the concealed carrier at the time.
The Star series of pistols still have something of a cult following. They produced a range of guns in various calibers, including 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and 10mm. Star’s firearms were known for being well-made, reliable, stout guns that weren’t going to break the bank.
The Firestar M43 In Hand
I secured a FireStar M43 for about $300. That’s not a terrible price as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t necessarily have a purpose for the gun, but the design, its history, and its look make it a fantastic little pistol.
My first impression of the gun was very positive. The ergonomics are brilliant. The ambidextrous safety lever is huge, and the pads are knurled for easy engagement. You may expect a dinky magazine release button, but the Firestar’s is bigger than a standard M1911. It’s also nicely textured. There’s a very useable large textured slide lock lever for easy engagement.
A set of rubber grips is well textured, with aggressively textured front and rear surfaces. Color me impressed. The slide uses inverted rails similar to thos on the CZ-75. That lowers the bore axis and produces a smaller, lighter slide. The sights are metal, the three white dot variety. They are perfectly adequate and aren’t too small to be useful.
Make no mistake, the Firestar is weighty. It plops into the hand, and you can feel that all-steel heft. The Starvel finish gives it a stainless look, but it’s an electroless nickel plate.
Blasting Away With the Firestar
The Firestar feels solid in the hand and fits well. I have a bit of a hanging pinky with the Firestar, but it’s not all that bad. The recoil impulse is what you’d expect from a 9mm firing from a 1.88-pound pistol. It’s mild, comfy, and a fun gun to shoot.
The 1.10-inch width also helps dissipate recoil along a good portion of your hand. Shooting a small 9mm can get tiring after a hundred rounds or so, but that’s not the case with the Firestar. It’s nothing like shooting an LC9 or similar tiny 9mm.
Tracking the front sight for fast follow-up shots isn’t particularly easy, but it settles back down fairly quickly. Sadly, the gun’s accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. I’m no pro shooter, but I can shoot most other smaller guns with better accuracy than I can the M43. Hitting the A-Zone of an IPSC target was difficult and the pistol’s accuracy doesn’t seem consistent.
I can hit minute of bad guy, as long as he’s presenting his entire body to me. Trying to hit a threat at greater distances might be tough, or if a bad guy uses cover I might also feel a bit underarmed.
Reliability wasn’t a problem, though. The weapon cycled 115, 124, and 147-grain ammo just fine. I threw some 115-grain JHPs downrange. I had two issues with 115-grain ammo. They were failures of the slide to close fully. I had to thumb it into battery, and there wasn’t any resistance. After those two problems the gun worked without a problem.
The Firestar Burns Bright
The Firestar has some magazine-related quirks. When you hit the button, the magazine doesn’t drop out. The user has to remove it. That’s perfect for tactical reloads but slow in an emergency. Since it’s a pistol from Europe in the 1980s, you get a magazine safety.
Ultimately, the FireStar M43 isn’t a bad gun, but the more you shoot it, the more you understand why it didn’t really take off and why it’s not as popular as guns like the Shield. The M43 has some high points, but its main downside is its accuracy. The quirky magazine release doesn’t help, nor does its weight as a carry gun.
The M43 still holds a place on the cool scale, even if its outclassed by most other modern firearms.
Nothing in the Star line compares to its former (and classic) BM-9. This Firestar M43 just looks like an attempt to grasp at the company’s former glory days that rode into the horizon when they discontinued the BM-9 and similar models three decades ago.
Hasta la bye bye, Star.