While the breech-locking system was identical to the 1911, a number of dimensional and mechanical changes made it cheaper and faster to produce. The resulting Pistola Militar Modelo 1920 was based upon the Browning-designed Colt 1911 pistol. Realizing that the world market was oversup plied with Ruby-type pistols, Bonifacio set about designing and producing a pistol chambered for more powerful cartridges. Bonifacio obtained the trademark name “Star” for the firm and renamed it Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A.
In 1919 Julián left the firm to head a technical school for gunsmiths. The Modelo 1 Militar was marked “Izarra” (Spanish for “Star”) or later “Star,” which led the French to designate it the “ Pistolet automatique, type Star.” But Bonifacio also obtained a separate contract from the French for the Pistola Modelo 1914, or, as they renamed it, the Pistola Modelo 1 Militar. 2 Modelos 19 were similar, while the Modelos 19 were chambered for the 7.65mm Browning (.32 ACP).ĭuring World War I, the Echeverrias were one of the subcontractors producing a 7.65mm “Ruby” style pistol for Gabilondo y Urresti, which sold hundreds of thousands of them to the French and Italian armies. 1 (aka Modelo 1905), was a simplified version of the Mannlicher M.1900 chambered for the (then) new 6.35mm Browning (.25 ACP) cartridge. The firm’s first product, the Pistola No. RELATED STORY: World War MilitAIRia: 7 Military Sidearm Air Gun ReplicasĮstablished by José Cruz Echeverria in the 19th century, his sons Julián and Bonifacio took control of the firm in 1905 to enter the burgeoning market for the new breed of semi-auto pistols.One of these was a family-owned firm with the name of Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. T he mountainous region around the city of Eibar in northeastern Spain possesses an abundance of iron, coal and water power, which, when combined with the industriousness of the region’s Basque people, led to the development of the Iberian Peninsula’s greatest arms-making center.
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