Astra and Firestorm

lead

I was reading the post about Llamas and agree with the general opinion about them, but I wanted to know about Astra. It is Spanish, is it a better gun? I've seen one of the A-100 models with a 17 round clip for sale. It looks like a good gun, and they are advertised as ex-police guns. What do you guys think? Firestorm, I've been told, is the Llama under a new name. Is that right? Can we expect the same problems? A good gun at a good price is always tempting, especially when you are raising two kids and it seems like the bills never end.

Car sickness is the feeling you get when you send in the monthly payment.

lrarmsx

Firestorm has two lines. One of the lines is the single action autos from LLama, the other one is their double action gun designs from Bersa. So depending on which model you are looking at, it may or may not be of Llama heritage.

As for the Astra line-up. The A-100's that are out there now are police trade-ins. It is difficult to tell how much they may have been used or carried. The Astra is a good gun, but parts and magazines can be hard to find. There are a lot of police trade-in S&W autos available too. With those you may pay slightly more, but you'll have ready access to mags, grips, and almost any other accessory you may want. Just something to think about.

Nighthawk

I cant form an opinion on the Firestorm,as for The Astra Ill stick my neck out and say there a good gun.I bought a used one with three 17rd mags about two years ago.I havent shot it much as I should,but Ive at least put two hundred rounds through it and it was very reliable.If I had to find a fault with mine it would be trigger pull,its pretty heavy,and you the shooter cant feel the point where its about to crack.Ive been told that was a plus the guns were made that way for the Spainish Police,and its there theory that you shoot better when not anticipating the gun to crack.However most of us has been trained from childhood to know when your trigger is about to give.nyway I give the Astra a good rating.

Best!!

Rugster

Der Gebirgsjager

The Astra is basically a steel copy of the SIG. Mechanically it is an excellent gun. Mine is an A-80 .45 ACP, and Irarmsx knows of what he speaks--because at the moment I happen to be buying two magazines from him for my pistol! They are currently available from CDNN, but not the version I need; and they are not inexpensive. Mine is very reliable, but the accuracy is approx. that of an untuned but new G.I. 1911-A1. We should always approach the sales hype of "used police gun" with a certain amount of skepticism. What police, where? Why did they get rid of them? Even better question: "What did they buy to replace them?" As for the Firestorm, I have fired a couple belonging to customers and they worked fine. Another knowledgeable member of this forum has praised them highly. However, I will once again give a qualified defense to the Llama product. Basically they are a sound pistol. Very often, as they come from the box, they require a litte bit of work to make them reliable such as polishing the feed ramp or throating the rear of the chamber. The problem is that they usually lack that final little bit of quality control and trouble shooting before being shipped, and the purchaser is put off by an initial bad experience. Sometimes the purchasers try to home-gunsmith their pistol and make matters worse. But look at it this way (from a gunsmith's point of view) this is a direct copy of John Browning's
1911 design. If everything is deburred, polished, and lubricated it just about has to work! I own one now, and over the years have owned several. I certainly would not place them on a par with Colt or Springfield, but they can be made to work satisfactorily (and usually do as received)--and you get what you pay for.