Found the P17 love

[gloob]

I pulled out the P17 that has been forgotten in a garage cupboard for years. And I'm starting to warm up to it.

First off, it's still perfectly functional after years of sitting in a non climate controlled garage. I was somewhat impressed by this. Holds air with no leaks. Still accurate.

At some point, I must have done the martini glass mod to the breechface, because loading pellets was not nearly as annoying as I remember. I had also shaved down the irregularly blobby glo sights, so the dots are smaller and more perfectly circular, and the sight picture was less annoying. There's still some play in the rear sight, but not too bad considering the range of the gun. These were two of the things that most put me off in the start.

After dispatching several rats with only ~410 fps using 177 wadcutters up to 16 yards, I figure the 385 fps of this pistol should do the job at least up to 7 yards, which is quite often enough. Plus, it seems pretty safe to leave this gun cocked. Relatively low pressure there to deform seals? I'll find out. I've left it cocked for hours at a time, with not even 1 fps lost. It's inevitable I accidentally leave it charged overnight, soon. I'll post the results!

[x3baddad]

I leave my P-17 charged and loaded all the time sometimes it might be a couple of days before I shoot it, but usually shoot it once a day

[Jeff Marshall]

my two sometime sit for months charged.

[gloob]

Well, I left mine charged for what must be 8 or 9 hours, and it chrono'd at 384. Baseline is 382 to 387. Seems fine to me. Good to know others do this without issues.

I bet if I charged it after leaving it out at night and then fired it during the day, it would shoot even faster than normal!

[Back_Roads]

 Charge it in a freezer

[x3baddad]

Freezing might be tough on the o-rings

[avator]

Tried it, got stuck and Betty Lou had to help me get out.

[Robert 5mm]

Colder air is more dense than warmer air. The chamber itself being cold may not help much.

Therefore, if the P17 is charged with cold air and than allowed to warm, the pressure in the chamber will be greater after warming.
The discharge pressure will be higher and the pellet speed will also be higher ( but not very much ).

[gloob]

404!

I already got my first chance to try the P17 on a rat.

I tagged one the other night with my 1377 carbine. I usually go for a body shot, but this time I could only see the eyeshine from my red light through the leaves and aimed right between them. He dropped but kept twitching.

So I picked up the P17 to finish it, near point blank. And missed. Whoops!

Well, I reloaded the P17 in the chill of evening and chronied it this afternoon, a day and a half later.

5% increase in velocity. 384, normally. 404 fps on this shot. That's pretty close to what I tagged the rat with, on the 1377 with only 4 pumps.


I mostly shoot rats at night, so this doesn't really help to increase power. I guess I'll just have to be careful about when I charge it, if I'm going to use it for this purpose. And I also need to work on my pistol marksmenship.

I have the pistol in my garage fridge right now, to see if it will shoot >400 on a December night.