Star Model 1914 at a Backup Gun Match
Forgotten Weapons
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4m 23s
This didn't come out as well as I was hoping (one of the stage videos got corrupted and the others don't show the shooting stages as well as I'd anticipated), but I will do better in future work. The gun, on the other hand, performed much better than I was expecting!
The Star Model 1914 was a pistol purchased by the French army starting in 1915 as an emergency wartime substitute standard sidearm alongside the Ruby. The Star was a more expensive gun, but also higher quality than many of the Ruby clones. It is a single-action, simple blowback action chambered for .32 ACP (7.65mm Browning) with a single-stack 9-round magazine. I did have to download the magazine to 8 rounds for it to be reliable, but that may well just the result of wear and tear on a century-old magazine.
The match where I am shooting today is designed for backup guns, like compact automatics and snub-nosed revolvers. Each stage is designed for 5-10 rounds, with no mandatory reloads - which makes it a good venue for me to use a gun like, which I only have a single magazine for. Note that because of the wide variety non non-range-safe ways people carry backup guns, the match stages never begin with a live gun holstered. Instead, you substitute a dummy gun in your carry style of choice (for me today, a 1916 pattern French Ruby holster). At the buzzer, you draw the dummy gun and then swap it for your real gun.
Overall, I placed much better than I had expected - tied for 4th out of 28 shooters!
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