Starr Arms Carbine

[Tommy Moore]

What can you tell me about Starr Arms Carbines.  My Father in law has one.  He always thought it was a Sharps.  My brother in law and I got it down and found it was made by Starr arms Co, Yonkers, NY.  A google search gave me some basics but I was wondering about the information behind the information.  This site amazes me with the depth of knowledge from the posters.  So any information would be appreciated.  Mainly I'd like to know how it worked.  It's breech loading, but percussion.  What did the spark ignite?  Thanks in advance.

[JimBob]

Your Starr is one of many breechloading carbines developed in the Civil War period.In operation it is very similiar to the Sharps of the period and fired a fixed paper or linen wrapped combustible cartridge of .54 caliber containing 60 to 63 grains of powder ignited by percussion cap.

The Starr is one of many Civil War era carbines that fall into the "also ran" categories.It was tested twice by the government prior to the Civil War with favorable reports.There were two orders placed for Starr Carbines,July 1863 for 600 carbines and September 1863 for 20,000.From the number of reports on these from the field it appears they were issued in some quantity.The field reports were not positive.The biggest issue seems to have been a failure to fire which was later determined to be caused by issueing Sharps ammunition in which the paper cartridge was quite a bit shorter than standard Starr cartridges.They also had problems due to fouling caused by using unlubricated projectiles,which caused notable inaccuracy problems and the breech to jam in operation.

The Starr wasn't the best of carbines but was far from being the worst.If the Starr Co.,with their DA revolver design had the same genius for self promotion as Samuel Colt had,they might have been more successfull.Many companies like Starr didn't last long after the Civil War with the dumping on the market of thousands of surplus firearms by the government,Spencer being the most notable.

[Tommy Moore]

Thanks

[JimBob]

For more information on the Starr and the company who built them a good basic source is  Civil War Guns by William Edwards.