Star sizer and loader at work in 1936

[Rolling Stone]

I just found this LA county sheriffs movie that among other things shows Star equipment being well used by their employees. Hensley and Gibbs are also shown. I hope you enjoy this old movie. Things have changed somewhat in training methods. Don't you think?
Rolling Stone

Sorry about that, I have trouble with CRS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jDP8BRSEjrA

[rbwillnj]

Where do we find the movie?

[Rolling Stone]

I added the link, sorry about that.

RS

[fc60]

I enjoyed that very much.

Interesting to see the Star Greaser and Reloader. If the copyright on the film is correct as 1936 Star, when did the Star tools first appear on the market?

The mould I saw is a Cramer, I believe, not a Hensley and Gibbs.

Many thanks,

Dave

[Oscar Orum]

I really enjoyed the film. Thanks for making it available.
Oscar

[Buckhunter]

 Thanks for sharing this video, I enjoyed everything that it covered
 and especially being able to see the Star equipment being used that
 long ago, It would be interesting to find out just how old that Star
 Reloader was at that time, anyone know when the first Star Equipment
 was manufactured?  Buckhunter

[rbwillnj]

American Rifleman had a review article about the Star "Progressive" in May 1934, so it was certainly commercial by that date.   Clarence Peterson applied for the "Star" patent in July of 1933, and Patent 2,031,850 was granted on Feb 25th 1934.

The Star in the video has the Pat. Pending aluminum base, so it was most probably produced before May of 1934.   The very earliest machines had cast iron bases.  Slightly later they had the aluminum base, but had a brass powder slide housing which the machine in the video does not have. 

I think it is safe to say that the LAPD was a very early adopter of the Star reloader.

The attached picture is courtesy of member Larry Lawson

[3035Odell]

That is great! Thanks for sharing.  I like when the rookie shows up to the range and is corrected for the way he handed his revolver to the C.O.  Safety is #1  Now let me show you where we train you to shoot the cigar out of your partner's face :-)

[Buckhunter]

 Thanks Bruce, I appreciate the great information you provided, I now know
 the time frame for the first Star that was manufactured, The information on
 the base was also helpful to understand how the Star base was changed
 from the early cast iron base to the aluminum base. Wow, these great
 machines have a nice history. Makes me proud to still be able to use one
 of these fantastic machines. Buckhunter
 
 
 

[jtd]

One of the star machines that I have is a very old progressive with .38 dies and an extra tool head with .30 carbine dies but no shell plate with the .30 cal. head. It has an aluminum base with the raised patent pending letters and a hand engraved SD LA Co. Neither powder bar housing is brass. I got the machine from an Air Force shooter that was in California around 1960. Never knew where he got it but it is still in good working condition. Anyone care to venture a guess on the engraving or possible history? Unfortunately, my friend died and there is no one left that was there all those years ago.

[varmintpopper]

Just a guess, but the ingraving may be : Sheriffs Department, Los Angeles county.

Good Shooting

Lindy

[johnfreeman]

One of mine is stamped "CHPD".... clearly a police department, but it came from the upper midwest so I have no idea.

John in NC
(it's probably NOT Chapel Hill Police Dept since it didn't come from here)

[rbwillnj]

So I went back and tried to take a close look of the bullet sizer in the video.   It's only visible for moment, and its not very clear, but the aluminum base appears to have the same shape as the early model discussed in an earlier thread, and it seems to have the cast iron Pressure Screw Nut on top.

http://www.starreloaders.com/forum/index.php?topic=1699.0

Clarence Peterson applied for the Lubesizer patent in August of 1934, and Patient 2,019,795 was granted in November of 1935.

It's really amazing that these two very early Star machines were captured in motion pictures.   Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Now if we could just find some pictures of the Star Machine Works.  (inside and outside)   They must exist somewhere.

[Oscar Orum]

One of mine is stamped "CHPD".... clearly a police department, but it came from the upper midwest so I have no idea.

John in NC
(it's probably NOT Chapel Hill Police Dept since it didn't come from here)

I believe that you will find CHPD is the abbreviation for the California Highway Patrol.

[Joatmon]

This is a great video and a real time capsule.  I have a couple of old handgun shooting books by Charles Askins, in them he talked about some of the great bullseye shooting individuals and teams of the time.  Some of them included teams from the LAPD and Orange county, along with teams from the Detroit PD.  I would swear some of those guys in the film look like some of the guys in photos in the books.  I just about dropped out of my chair when I saw the guy get the pieces of chalk shot out of his ears.  Talk about confidence in your fellow shooter! 
On the subject of machines, I found the name of a New Jersey PD scratched on the bottom of a Hulme feeder on a 38 progressive machine of mine.  That was kind of neat.  It was set up for large batch work with an oversize powder reservoir, case feeder, roller handle and so on.