I am a huge fan of these pistols. I was very suspicious of all the glowing reviews of this cheap pistol but finally gave in and bought one several years ago. I am amazed how accurate it is! Loading the pellets is a bit difficult with my fat fingers, but there is a mod you can make available on GTA website that involves drilling a hole in the frame behind the barrel so you can use a pellet loading pen. I haven't bothered to do it since I can usually get the hang of it after loading a few manually. A common problem is that the hole drilled in the charging piston sleeve is sometimes left with burrs that damage the O ring. This is easy to fix by polishing around the hole with emery cloth to remove the burrs. I hope you enjoy your pistol as much as I enjoy mine.

 

Ive seen the rear 'pen hole' mod but so far Im not doing bad with the pointed, domed and wadcutters Ive tried as is, its almost like it has a pellet size 'chamber' to get them going in.
I was tempted to just pull the piston out before shooting it then thought if there is a burr it has already nicked the piston O-ring (#116 or 117 if you want a tad larger, the others are 006, 008, 009)
So I just decide to shoot and break it and me in, adj the sights and see what it offers. Im thinking Id like to have a glove on my left hand for closing it up, that 11mm rail bites using an open hand press and dont push down on the rear sight, it bites worse.
Ive already run about 100 pellets through it today and by early in the week it might be the time to pull down and take a look, might take 10 min to do so, lol; should probably buy 1 each of the #116/117 first.

 

Holding the front of the pistol against a tabletop helps in pushing down the slide with the flat of the hand. My pistol has seen thousands of pellets without any need to replace the O ring so you might get lucky too! I use a drop of special silicone air gun oil to lubricate the piston sleeve. This gets into the chamber and lubricates the O rings. Enjoy your shooting!

 

Hre is a better method on loading this pistol.

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/threads/having-trouble-loading-a-pellet-in-a-p17-dexterity-problem-i-found-a-solution.1326474/?post_id=13709989#post-13709989

 

It sounds nice! Post up some pix!

 

Check post and link #5 go to the bottom pics are there.

 

My P-17 has been quite impressive for such an inexpensive toy. I did take it apart and checked for burrs and such. Polished up a few parts and installed a take-up setscrew in the trigger. Trigger pull is an awesome 22 ounces with almost no take-up!

 

I forgot to mention the fantastic trigger! Again, unbelievable bargain for such little money. I call it my "hallway pistol" since it is perfect to shoot indoors when the weather sux!

 

Ran another 50 or so through it today, thus far Ive caught my shirt 2x, pants 1x and a tiny finger nip 1x closing that 'over lever' .....and got some pretty decent shots with the unfamiliar to me fiber optics. Trigger is certainly good, even compared to the tuned up triggers on my Crosman 13xx series and my Daisy 717.
It seems to be thwacking with some authority too; I should dig out the old chrony and check it before tearing down.

 

Ran another 50 or so through it today, thus far Ive caught my shirt 2x, pants 1x and a tiny finger nip 1x closing that 'over lever' .....and got some pretty decent shots with the unfamiliar to me fiber optics. Trigger has a lot of take up (Im sure solvable) then some stacking and a decent break (certainly not the snicky of the RWS Diana 5G but good). Someday I may dig into it.......though I dont have to for a fun plinker.
It seems to be thwacking with some authority too; I should dig out the old chrony and check it before tearing down.

Around 400 FPS with no mods I have had mine 10 years or so and it is still going strong, I do add
a bit of silicone oil to the piston, never a tear down the oil migrates down and lubes all internals.
Just about the best money can buy.

 

Here’s mine with a grip sleeve and a red dot. Its incredibly accurate.

 

Curiosity got me, I popped the rt grip off to look at the works....it's a bit busy in there (there is info and pics online), yep, mine looks like the pics lol. Grip was tight, took some gentle, careful persuasion to get it off.
The tang of the sear spring jumps out at the grip rear (no problem, just be sure to tuck it back down in before putting the rt grip back on). My spring has a bent over tip, I guess that's to let you get a small screwdriver tip on it to get it to seat in the rt side grip panel, Not the left, just before you press the rt side on. It is futzy!
There was a layer of light lube over all the works, though no idea what quality; I left as is for now as the trigger is not objectionable; ie, dont fix it if it aint broke
Also put a dab of light Loctite on the screw/nut junction for the elevation adjustment screw under the 'slide' rear; the sight detents aren't strong and I dont want it changing itself during use (of course it is sighted in for my eyes before doing that).

 

The trigger has an Allen adj screw (think its a 2mm), experimenting today I turned it in and only got maybe 1/4 turn before it got tight, like bottomed out, and that changed nothing in the feel.
So I went to loosening and trying it, each time it lengthened the 'take up' until it wouldnt break. As far as I can tell all the screw does is change the length of the take up, not the length of pull to the break.
Speaking of safety, it has an automatic one when cocked. Some dont like em, Im ok with it. When cocking there will be a pellet in there, we dont want it escaping! Sliding the auto set safety to Fire is a small price to pay......but the auto-set is easily disconnected and the safety will still work manually if one so desires.
Btw, there are a couple of cross pins that are held with grub screws (taking that same 2mm? wrench), one up front for the piston rod right on the very end and another on the internal breechblock top on one side only. Mine were not tight and one pin had begun to 'walk'....tapped it to centered and tightened the screw.
I also pulled out my GSG 1911-22, the heft and balance of each of these is similar though the feel in hand a bit different; not too much as mine has an arched mainspring housing. No way will this fat pistol fit in my 1911 holsters but I do have a large pistol 'belt slide' that it does.

 

Almost a month now and Ive been shooting this P17 every couple days and rather like the fiber-optic sights that I can actually see without the 'hunt' for sight alignment with traditional patridge sights. I guess that I have at least a couple hundred break in shots through it. My tin of Crosman Domed HP has many that the head is too large to enter the breech and others (my Crosman WC's) that drop in nicely. I may give that beech a bit more of a chamfer.
Today I experimented with trigger adjustment and surprise, I was back to the oem setting then that smidge more to the screw snug in. Someday I may do that d/t and a longer screw just to find out but it sure aint bad at all now.
I LIKE IT

 

What's with Airgun Nation?
I just found out this morning that this thread, from my original header and post, has been plagiarized by 'Alan83' on Aug 29 as if his own
Anybody here also on that forum so it can be reported or whatever?

 

Is is possible he just has a similar writing style, or was it verbatim?

 

It was mine

 

Found a ref to a 'hardware store' 0-ring for the piston:
UC70D116

 

If you can find one, spring for a IZH-46M, Downside is that it is Russian made. I have two and it is the easiest charging SSP I have ever seen. Actual cocking is another matter. pull a latch forward and pull the loading port back, only a few ounces effort until it clicks, then close and you can dry fire. The trigger pull is fanastic, mine are about 3 ounces. Absolutely the easiest cycling pistols I have, the cocking lever is long, serves as a trigger guard, and the linkeage looks like a Rube Goldberg affair but it works to make compressing the charge very easy. Accuracy is top notch also, surpasses my FWB 80 any day.

 

It is the same old story, I shoulda/coulda wayyy back when they were less expensive and I was more capable........ Nowadays with my 'issues' my reality is the Izzy is 'too much gun' for this old plinker. Ive been coming to terms with that since my stroke almost a year ago and the upper end guns have been slowly trickling away. Im never going to be better than I am now and know it.
That said, the plinking IS Great Fun and helping with my therapy

 

I like my Beeman p17 then I bought a p3 it is worth the extra $

 

I used to leave 1 pump of air in my Phase 2 Crosman 1377 and 1322, and keep a little ATF on the pump wiper and cup, they ran great. Ive read that leaving the full pump in these SSP is not recommended but discovered something the other day when 'short stroking' it to reset and trip the trigger while adjusting. That short stroke does intake a bit of air and when the trigger trips there is a mild pop. Last night I left it like that and this morning got the same pop so it held the air. Im thinking that it MIGHT be good to do this similar to how it was good for the Crosmans.
Well, Im doing it, nothing like experimental commitment.....
Fwiw, I did the same with the Artemis LP400, it popped too though much more mild as expected.

 

Been storing my P-17 without pressure for years and never noticed any drop in performance. Still a tack driver at 10 yards.

 

I sold the 1377 and 1322 last Sat, had em a lonnggg time.
Yesterday and today shot the P17 and Arty LP400 a fair bit.....aint missing the 13xx's At All. I couldn't see the sense of spending ludicrous money on upgrading them with metal breeches, better adjustable sights and triggers, much less LW barrels, etc. when the P17 comes with the adj. sight, a decent trigger, an 11mm rail and better accuracy right out of the gate; a bit more ergonomic and better balance too.
Seems I got through the learning curve ok as the 'hard cocking issue' isn't so much a big deal anymore nor is the pellet loading access

 

After probably 400 pellets I had a little time today, and curious, so......
I loosened the little 2mm Allen screw at the front of the piston rod, slid the pin out, lifted the rod from the over lever and with a little canting upward of the cylinder tube pulled the rod/piston right out. TOO EASY!
There was NO burr on the air inlet hole, no nicks in the wet o-ring and the whole of the tube was wet also. The piston head wiped clean easily. Down in the base of the tube was lube and maybe some remnants of the oem grease? Fwiw, a 12ga. shotgun mop wrapped with some paper toweling to bulk it up fit nicely in the tube and swabbed it all out in a jiffy.
Checked the lip of the tube for a sharp edge (if so dress it down so it doesnt tear the o-ring on reassembly).
Using my current fav SSP lube, a highly refined petroleum based dental tool lubricant, I rubbed the cyl, piston and o-ring well and reassembled. The hardest part was getting the piston rod hole lined up with the two ears of the over lever so the pin would slide in.

 

I used White Lithium grease in mine. Found it to be rather easy to work on. Amazed at how good the trigger is, especially after a little tuning.

 

I like the thin bodied seal friendly lubes because they migrate everywhere, all the way through the comp chamber, the valve and even the discharge seal at the rear of barrel, 'flushing' the system as well as conditioning ALL the seals and lubing the piston/cyl wall. You can get an idea of when it may need another couple drops when the discharge seal starts not looking wet all the time.
Ime ssp and multi pumps run best and last longest when 'run wet'.
I was Very Pleased to see how clean and wet my cylinder and piston were when I pulled it down

 

Just borrowed a friends mech Wheeler trigger gauge, this P17 is breaking a 3#, that is all broke in with the oem lube after several hundred shots. Not bad for oem.
So I pulled the rt grip panel, pulled the works out, smoothed up the contacting surfaces and put on my slickum.
Gave it about 10 test trips from a half cock trigger reset then gauged it again, 2#2oz with a bit of take up, then some 1st stage to a wall and the 2nd stage trip.
The more I use it now the better it is feeling.