Welcome to Star-Firearms.com

Printed Manuals Now Available!

Finally, I have a good excuse for no visible updates. I have been gathering up the manuals into one location, and making them formatted for printing.

This not 100% done. Shortly, instead of spread all around, every manual will be stored in one place and (as well as accessed from each relevant firearm page) will be listed in the table here:
http://star-firearms.com/firearms/manuals/index.shtml

That way, in the very likely case we don't have the right manual, you can make a good guess as to which one to download instead.


More exciting, I think, is the printed version. There's now a nice, spiral bound (so it lays flat and you don't fight it while handling the gun) version of every manual I have for handguns (I figured there aren't too many SMG owners) in either color or economy black & white editions. At 277 pages, if you are a Star owner, you probably want one of these.
Buy the color edition now 227 pages $59.95
Buy the black & white edition now 227 pages $19.95

The PDF manuals for download will remain at full resolution, and totally free. I take a few bucks off the top of each book sale, but as with the T-shirts and donations, this is for site upkeep. I'll lower prices a bit if I sell so many I don't know what to do with the money. Again, like the T-shirts, almost all of the price you pay is for the product itself, so there's only so much I can do about that.


No, this is not complete. And I need your help to complete it. I am desperate for a Megastar manual, and now realize I don't have a good Super manual. If I cannot find one, I will be happy enough making one myself. So, anyone in the KC metro area with a Super, tell me and maybe we can meet and I'll take lots of notes and photos, and just make a maintenance guide of sorts.
shoobe01 on 08.10.09 @ 10:40 PM CST [link]

A few updates

This time I have a good excuse to my slacking off on entries. Aside from work, and training and conference speaking, I have published a book. It's about interactive design process, and not firearms in any way, so you can go ahead and not click the link unless you really do care about that topic.


Tonight as I try to catch up and answer email, there are a number of small tweaks, but here's two of note:

Reader Neil Bort informs me that the instructions for stripping the model F were wrong. I thought all the blowback Stars worked like Walthers and many others, with the stripping lever allowing the slide to overtravel into the stripping position. Instead, you just pull back 1/2" and the pull the slide up. So, everyone look at your various model F series (as there are many) and your other blowbacks and tell me which ones work which way so I can make sure each series has accurate stripping instructions.

Reader Ray Dumontier reminded me, basically, that the PD is aluminum. If the slide starts battering the frame, you will not have a gun for very long. Besides being scrupulous about changing springs, they have a buffer that also has to be changed out regularly. If yours does not have one, stop right now and get a new one. If you have not changed it for years, you also will need a new one. These are sold by Jack First, Inc.. They used to advise replacement on the spring replacement schedule, but newer materials may allow a longer interval. Check instructions or call the manufacturer of the part for advise on this.


shoobe01 on 04.27.09 @ 05:06 PM CST [link]

Cool photos and free stuff

I was going ahead and updating some stuff today after all, when I ran across a series of really nice photos sent to me by a reader. One of them was not very useful, but too cool, so I came upon an idea. I'll make it a wallpaper:



Just click (or right click and save, as you see fit) the above image. I have decided to only provide the one (2048 wide, so plenty big), and you can let it scale, or resize it. Email me (since this isn't really a blog so you can't respond, though I might change that sometime here) if this is annoying and maybe I'll make several sizes.

Since I am asking for donations, and have T-shirts for sale, I guess I should be selling these for some nominal fee. I might in the future, but all my best photography is by readers. Since I don't own it, it's hard to justify selling it off. I want to make sure everyone is still happy with sending me photos; it's your information that helps make this site.

I'll probably make a few more of these over time, as I run across cool images. Keep your eye here.
shoobe01 on 03.01.09 @ 03:08 PM CST [link]

More Bandwidth Again

For a few hours last night the site went down due to, again, exceeding it's allowable bandwidth. Seems the anti-hotlinking had very little effect, and it really is all direct traffic.

It's also very intense usage. My workplace is very jealous. For any of you who run websites, or do SEO work for them, here's some basics. Last month:
12,830 unique visitors
60,667 page views

Average time on site is an astonishing 4:28. That is unheard of within my knowledge. Even for other informational sites, 2-3 minutes is worth celebrating. And even more amazingly, new visitors continues to be over 75%. And while 70% of the traffic is from the US, visitors just this month are from 117 other countries.


So, I have gone ahead and (I think, their site is bad) upgraded from 12 to 30GB of transfer every month. This should cover us for at least a year I hope.


I also want to thank everyone who has donated or purchased products. That helps a lot with these fees, and has also made me guilty enough that even though I am stupid-busy I will get around to answering the email backlog (hopefully today) and try to set a more regular schedule to continue improving the site. I know there are still several guns for which I have some information, but have not taken the time to parse it out meaningfully and get it on the site.
shoobe01 on 03.01.09 @ 09:07 AM CST [link]

No hotlinking

Server traffic keeps rising, and I am not getting enough money from my fundraisers to cover it (see previous post -- thanks to everyone contributing!) so I thought of getting a little smarter instead.

Now, I have added some access control, and hotlinking is off. If you try to load an image from this site in another (like your favorite forum) you'll see:


Now, this is an information service and, clearly, not for a profit. So if you need to refer to an image, just grab it. You have to include a link back to the site (and the page where you got it) but then it's fair use.
shoobe01 on 02.01.09 @ 08:41 AM CST [link]

Sale on T-shirts

The pricing isn't my idea. It's something the guys who own the shirt shop came up with. Anyway, from now through the 16th of January, you can get 20.09% off any order of at least $20. I haven't seen another sale since I started, so if you were waiting, I'd ">order right now instead of waiting any longer. It might be next new year's before there's another sale.





Incidentally, if any overseas users want to buy a shirt, and have failed, I am sorry. This one has the most foreign service options, but it's still not many. If you really, really want one, email me and I'll arrange it (like, you pay me slightly extra for the shipping and I'll get it and send it to you myself).




I also can add other stuff. So if someone promises they want a hat or whatever, tell me and I'll get that added to the store.
shoobe01 on 12.31.08 @ 03:06 PM CST [link]

A note on restoring documents

I get a lot of requests for manuals around here. There are many offered already, but a lot of guns do not have them yet. I always ask readers, like you, to scan and send me your manual if you have one I don't already have posted, or your manual is different.

But no matter what, for many of these guns the manuals are hard to find, or in terrible shape. Most people do not care about the manual, and actually throw them away. At best, they are stored in poor condition, stuck in attics and basements.

Here is one for an HK just sent to me. This is atypically bad, but not unprecedented:


And here is what I post for you when I am done cleaning it up.


I have done this sort of thing for a living, so its not that hard, but neither is it that easy. So, aside from the cash outlay to run the site, this is the sort of thing I spend time doing. Enjoy, but please buy something or donate if you can.
shoobe01 on 12.09.08 @ 08:05 PM CST [link]

M30 top ends!

Looking at Sarco for other update reasons, I notice they have slides and many other top-end parts for M30s. So, if you've been wanting to do a gunsmith project on one of yours, check them out.

I'd call if you want more details. Sarco is often a bit confused (they really do just loose things in the back of the warehouse for years) and do best with phone calls, though I hear they are getting more onto email as well.

shoobe01 on 12.09.08 @ 04:48 PM CST [link]

Low on bandwidth again

The site continues to increase in popularity, and so I think it's time to go begging. You may have noticed that there are periodically advertisements around the edges of the site. The good ones (google, etc.) don't consider anything firearms-related to be acceptable, and all the others are terrible. At the very least, you should know I have never gotten a check from any of them.

Since they do me no good, and some cause bugs that prevent certain users from seeing the site, I have given up on them. But, it does cost me a couple hundred bucks to run the site every year. It used to be under $50, but that whole popularity thing keeps making me buy larger bandwidth plans.

So, I'm going to try two things. First, you can straight-up donate to me.

Just click this and you'll be taken to the PayPal page where you can use your account, or enter a credit card. They take a percentage of the sale, so keep that in mind. Even a buck or two from like 1% of the monthly visitors will pay for the whole year.


Second, I wanted to offer something of value instead. I might brainstorm some more. Current thought is to open a forum and only allow posting for paid users (but make the minimum payment $1). Should keep out the riff-raff and bots, but not be too onerous. But I'll have to actually install software, so we'll see. Anyway, I settled on logo-ware! Go to the brand-new Star Bonifacio Echeverria logo shop. No mousepads, hats or anything else yet, but if you need a T-shirt, you are in luck. I am only taking like $2.50 of each sale, for now, so don't blame me if you think the prices are high.




If you need another product that they offer, just email me and I'll add it to the store. They do have hats, but I cannot sell them yet. Working on it. If you get a shirt, feel free to send me photos of you wearing it, and I'll post them to the store gallery for everyone to see. I'm not getting one till I have paid for the site hosting so I don't know what they will look like.



Incidentally, expect to see the shirts and/or paypal links up in banner ads one of these days as well. A lot of traffic is from searches, and doesn't see this home page, so if I don't get many takers right away, I'll have to be more overt.
shoobe01 on 11.30.08 @ 10:32 AM CST [link]