Colt Checks out the Spanish Wondernine: the Star 30PK
Spain
•
7m 49s
Star entered the Wondernine era in 1978 with their Model 28 pistol, a double action 9mm offering with 15-round magazines. It was one of the entrants in the first round of US military XM-9 trials, but unfortunately for Star was beat out by the Beretta 92. Star took feedback on its gun from the commercial market, and revised a number of small elements to create the Model 30, released in 1981. A few years later (in 1986), the Colt company purchased 20 Stars - 10 30Ms and 10 30PKs - for “internal review” to see if they might be interested in manufacturing the design. They decided not to, and sold the guns off to Colt employees not much later.
A quick designation guide to the Star 28/30/31 series; M indicated a military pattern with a full length slide, P indicates a Police pattern with a shorter slide, and K indicated an aluminum alloy frame instead of the standard steel frame.
Up Next in Spain
-
Astra 902: Because More Rounds is Better
The Spanish Astra firm introduced its C96 Mauser lookalike, the Model 900, in 1927 to take advantage of the strong Chinese demand for that type of handgun. When Bestigui Hermanos introduced a select-fire machine pistol to the Chinese market, Astra quickly followed suit with their Model 910 and 90...
-
Leaders in Machine Pistols: the Beist...
Beistigui Hermanos is probably the least known of the Spanish machine pistol manufacturers, despite being the first to actually make such pistols. Beistigui was founded in 1910 in Eibar, and was one of the initial subcontractors chosen to make Ruby pistols for the French military during World War...
-
Star Z-70B: Spain's Improved SMG
The Star Z-70B was an incremental improvement on the earlier Z-62 and Z-63 submachine guns adopted by the Spanish military and security services. It remains an open bolt, selective fire design, with an underfolding stock. The trigger has changed from a progressive type to a standard trigger with ...
