BigBill Ol Buddy: sometimes the triggers on those old Astras can get pretty stiff. You will prolly have to take that beast apart and make certain you don't have any burrs or galling on the trigger bars or sear/sear pin. Also, be careful when you take the slide off, those oldies are under a lot of spring pressure and you can hurt yourself a bit if you're not careful taking them apart. What is it, direct blowback is what the action is - only spring pressure handles the recoil, no unlocking of the barrel or anything like that, just direct recoil.
Had an old 400 years ago, shot 38 supers through the darn thing until the extractor broke, traded it at a gun show for another one that had a trigger like yours, almost lost the main spring through a open 5th floor window when I took it apart, shot the snot out of it using more 38 supers and then finally sold it for a Star 9mm Largo/38 Super and shot the snot outta that one, too.
The Astra is an OK pistol. It is a heavy, solid, reliable chunk of steel that just keeps on tickin'. Smoothing up that trigger shouldn't be difficult, and it should handle any 9mm round on the market. HTH. Mikey.
