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My 1863 Starr.

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Colonial Boy

Colonial Boy

40 Cal.
MLF Supporter
Joined
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Messages
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New England, New South Wales, Australia.
Finally in my hands, have been a month getting the legal bits done for licensing, partly my fault.
However herewith,
Took this outdoors for better lighting.
IMG_6705.jpeg

IMG_6704.jpeg


The nipples are good but there has been at least one dry firing.
IMG_6706.jpeg

The barrel is ‘as new’
7
IMG_6710.jpeg

and the mechanical condition is as new also, in fact the loading lever is stiff to move and rhe opening of the body is also stiff.
All numbers match and markings, including the ‘m’ of the Inspector are very clear.
Virtually a new 160 year old pistol.
 
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Colonial Boy said:
Finally in my hands, have been a month getting the legal bits done for licensing, partly my fault.
However herewith,
Took this outdoors for better lighting.
View attachment 348603
View attachment 348604

The nipples are good but there has been at least one dry firing.
View attachment 348605
The barrel is ‘as new’
7View attachment 348606
and the mechanical condition is as new also, in fact the loading lever is stiff to move and rhe opening of the body is also stiff.
All numbers match and markings, including the ‘m’ of the Inspector are very clear.
Virtually a new 160 year old pistol.
Click to expand...

Awesome, can you send a close up picture of the loading lever latch ?

thanks !
 
Colonial Boy said:
Here are a couple of views of the cylinder from the ‘business’ end.
Note the transition from the taper to the straight bore.
View attachment 348631
View attachment 348632
Click to expand...
Congrats on scoring a neat historical pistol :thumb:

I shoot mostly orig. firearms but have never fired a Star 'yet'. The excellent bore with fast rifling should provide you with superb accuracy.

Photo of your Starr's cylinder indicate the front third of the chambers are relieved to allow tighter fitting balls or slugs for tighter fit & accuracy.
Don't know the specs for Starr nipples but If you have access to Treso nipples i'm betting they will have the right length & thread size for you, they've last forever on my revolvers.
A dab of Birchwood Casey 'brass black' will make the Treso alloy match the originals.
Happy Trails,
Relic shooter
 
Thanks for that, Relic Shooter, I’m a relic shooter too but I’m more the relic.

Got to fire the Starr today, unfortunately only 6 shots due to range and time constraints.
Scored two tens, two nines and two eights on the 25 metre rapid fire target.
Was firing off a rest and when I got home and started cleaning I discovered some fouling in the rear sight notch; the sights are designed for combat not target work so one cannot be critical.
One feature of the weapon that I did not like is the freely rotating cylinder however having had a ball jump forward and stop rotation, what a boon it is on a combat pistol, or any revolver for that matter, to be able to turn the cylinder backwards and ram the ball again.

I fired weighted charges of 30 gr. of 3f and .457 ball. The verdict of the onlookers was that the smoke and noise were impressive.
Plenty of room for experiment.
 
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Colonial Boy said:
Thanks for that, Relic Shooter, I’m a relic shooter too but I’m more the relic.

Got to fire the Starr today, unfortunately only 6 shots due to range and time constraints.
Scored two tens, two nines and two eights on the 25 metre rapid fire target.
Was firing off a rest and when I got home and started cleaning I discovered some fouling in the rear sight notch; the sights are designed for combat not target work so one cannot be critical.
One feature of the weapon that I did not like is the freely rotating cylinder however having had a ball jump forward and stop rotation, what a boon it is on a combat pistol, or any revolver for that matter, to be able to turn the cylinder backwards and ram the ball again.

I fired weighted charges of 30 gr. of 3f and .457 ball. The verdict of the onlookers was that the smoke and noise were impressive.
Plenty of room for experiment.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback on your Starrr C.B., glad to hear it shoots well :thumb:
I came close to buying a really nice double action Starr at our local gun show yesterday but procrastinated too long. Probably for the best as actions on the D.A. models tended to be troublesome.
Sights on civil war era revolvers tend to be sighted at about 75 yds, being the Starr front sight is dovetailed you could make a duplicate with taller & finer blade for competition shooting.
Cylinders on the original civil war .44 cal. revolvers I shoot tend to perform best with .460 dia. balls, .457 fit too loose.
 
I hope you're happy with it but somehow The mentions of permits and legalities and not being able to go out and plink around at will because of some kind of range permit restraints makes this sound sad instead of Happy
 
sethwyo said:
I hope you're happy with it but somehow The mentions of permits and legalities and not being able to go out and plink around at will because of some kind of range permit restraints makes this sound sad instead of Happy
Click to expand...
That’s why I say guard your Second Amendment.
Happy is as happy does and only being able to eat cashew nuts and not chocolates though irksome is better than not nibbling at all.
 
Colonial Boy said:
That’s why I say guard your Second Amendment.
Happy is as happy does and only being able to eat cashew nuts and not chocolates though irksome is better than not nibbling at all.
Click to expand...
So not getting off topic here, but, this morning I got mouthed off to by somebody who informed me that only American citizens have any constitutional rights and that people born in other countries are living in other countries do not have constitutional rights.

But . . . the right to keep and bear arms is a right of every person on the earth and it is not a constitutional right it is a Creator endowed unalienable right that every human being on Earth has no matter where they were born or what country they live in.

According to our founding fathers everyone has these rights, the problem is people in some areas are being illegally denied these rights
 
sethwyo said:
So not getting off topic here, but, this morning I got mouthed off to by somebody who informed me that only American citizens have any constitutional rights and that people born in other countries are living in other countries do not have constitutional rights.

But . . . the right to keep and bear arms is a right of every person on the earth and it is not a constitutional right it is a Creator endowed unalienable right that every human being on Earth has no matter where they were born or what country they live in.

According to our founding fathers everyone has these rights, the problem is people in some areas are being illegally denied these rights
Click to expand...
That’s how I’ve always understood it, the Second Amendment doesn’t confer the right to keep and bear arms, it recognises that Right.
Were the Second abolished tomorrow the Right of the people to keep and bear arms would remain, but there’d be a mighty civil upset, to say the least.
 
2nd amendment is actually about something else, arms are part of it.

My first starr was a reproduction I traded an 1858 an a 1860 replica and $50 for it,
it was brand new in the box,
I later traded it off I never could get a feel for it .
I didn't like the double action and trying to use the single action was awkward, it always hurt my finger so bad when I fired it I never could get used to trying to shoot it.
But like so many things from the past, I wish I'd kept it.
I remember a Patterson in the gun shop up in Missoula they wanted a couple hundred bucks for it and I didn't want it at the time. Sure wish I'd scooped it up and hung on to it
 
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I posted some time ago about the conicals I cast from an original Starr mold. I wonder how they would shoot but the mold is too fragile to get hot enough to cast a decent batch of bullets. If there were enough interest from others I would pay for a custom mold to that pattern. So, @Colonial Boy, have you shot any conical bullets?
 

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