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Fan Star Firearms Favorite Holsters
The Story of Star Firearms Holsters
Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A., more commonly known as Star Firearms, was a Spanish manufacturer of small arms. The company was based in the Basque region, Spain, and it existed from 1905 until 1997. The oldest known ancestor of the Star lineage is José Cruz Echeverria, who made muzzle-loading firearms in the 19th century. The Star brand was established by his two sons, Julián and Bonifacio, who entered the firearms business in about 1905. The first handgun the two brothers ever designed was the 1908 model. Shortly after that, Julián left the family business, but Bonifacio was determined to make the brand known all around the country.
Later on, Bonifacio developed a largely improved and upgraded version of the Model 1908, calling it Star Model 14. The pistol became popular enough to be adopted by the French Army, who asked for it to be chambered in the 7.65mm Browning calibre, calling it the Pistolet automatique Star. Towards the end of the brand’s existence, Star Firearms gained some real recognition across Europe and eventually the rest of the world when they released a commercially very successful Star 30M pistol. This was a modification of the previous Star 28M. The pistol was introduced in 1990 and it is essentially a recoil operated, locked breech pistol, that uses Browning-designed, linkless locking (High Power-type), with two lugs on the barrel and shaped cam under the chamber that interacts with slide stop axis inside the frame. Star Firearms also used to cooperate with Astra, another popular Basque guns manufacturer. The two companies were eventually joined together and named Agrupación Social Trabajadores Armeros, S.A.L., or more simply ASTAR.