P17 – five simple mods

[WyoMan]

Mods:
1. Auto Safety to Manual
2. Weight / Balance
3. Trigger and components
4. Barrel
5. Piston

First thing I do is strip it to the bone. It’s easier that way:



Auto Safety to Manual

This shows the spring-loaded lever that pushes the safety back when the overlever is closed:


To remove, drive out the pin shown below:



The Safety still works but will now be manual…
Fire:


Safe:



Adding Weight and Balance

This is a matter of preference, but I think that adding weight to the bottom grip panels improves the balance and feel…


Lead Shot:


Filled with Epoxy:


Up next is trigger mods

Wyo

[Xraycer]

Gary, you rock!

[dv8eod]

Go ahead and make this a sticky.....  (Glad I got more than one. After the first one, the rest should go faster...  )

[WyoMan]

Thanks guys.
Terry, I've hacked up three of them and a HW40  I've got a new barrel design, my third and I think it will be the best...

Wyo

[Buldawg76]

subscribed

[Wolverineshooter]

Great, keep going..

[avator]

Love it, Gary.
One thing I do feel compelled to warn..
Many of us, at least I, lay the pistol on our thigh to close the receiver after loading. With the auto safety removed, please be sure to keep your finger away from the trigger or you run the risk of the gun firing.
Those of us who opt to lighten the trigger run an added risk of premature firing.
I have removed the safety on my personal gun but left it functional on Betty Lou's and any gun I let others use.

[JnJHess]

Wow, Garry you're them bomb. Keep it going. Follow with much interest. And yes a +1 for the Stickie.

[Tom Tucker]

Great idea for a sticky with all the bargain gate P17s that were purchased.

[WyoMan]

Thanks, guys.
Bill, we sometimes forget to mention caution when showing the modifications… thanks for that.

Trigger and Components

The latch / unlatch (break) occurs between the sear and the intermediate lever.
Those surfaces (circled below) slide against each other and may benefit from some light smoothing:


The intermediate lever also moves between the wire guides that are inside of the hammer. This is another potential area to smooth.
Shown below with some 600 grit rolled up that I will work up and down (just one way to do it):


You can replace the fixed first-stage with an adjustable first-stage. The P17 trigger is pretty good right out of the box. This mod just adds some more adjustability.
Remove the hardened steel pin:


I drilled thru the trigger with a 3/32” drill and tapped 4-48:



Using an alloy steel 4-48 setscrew for the first-stage contact:


As Bill mentioned above, modifying the trigger can make it unsafe. These pistols are prone to getting a jolt when the over-lever is closed.
And when that occurs, the pistol is probably loaded, cocked and charged. To keep it safe, you need adequate trigger spring tension and the subsequent engagement between the intermediate lever and the sear.

As far as I know, the only way to have it both crisp and safe is to have both stages engaged with the break occurring on the second-stage.

Putting the trigger components back together and making adjustments…



The above shows the hammer in the cocked position. The circles show the sear locking the hammer and the intermediate lever locking the sear.
I like to test the first-stage to see if the trigger spring will reset everything when you let off… if it doesn’t, there’s probably something wrong.

Up next is a longer barrel (Lothar Walther)

Wyo

[CraigH]

Gary,

Great stuff, superb pictures!   I have followed your work here and on CAPOF for a few years.   None better!

[WyoMan]

Thanks, Craig… been awhile since I checked-in over there but had lots of good times.

Longer Barrel

There’s more than one way to do this. I’ve done it three different ways but this has been the easiest so far.
The barrel is a Lothar Walther for a Crosman 2300S. It’s about the right length and diameter for what I want to do.

Parted off the transfer port, faced and chamfered the new breech, cut the new leade and plugged it with a pellet:


Turned just the bare minimum here and then cut the corners so it would be easier to slide in and out:


The frame will need a couple alterations for the longer barrel.
A clearance cut is necessary on the lower frame (below the pivot) in order to get a full intake stroke:



Depending on the o.d. of your longer barrel, you’ll have to drill something thru the muzzle. This one was drilled 7/16”:

I’m also adding a couple setscrews to secure the barrel because the muzzle restraint was drilled out and is gone.
These were drilled 1/8” and tapped 8-32. A second set will be added to lock the lower set.

The barrel was left a couple thou oversize and that turned out pretty well… it’s a nice snug fit:


The new barrel is 9.7” long… 3” longer than the oem barrel. Getting closer here:



It doesn’t shoot yet because it doesn’t have a piston… still working on that…

Wyo

[WyoMan]

Last mod – Piston

This shows the original piston (minus cheap oem o-ring):

The mark on the piston is how far it comes out of the cylinder at the end of the intake stroke… that established the location for the back of the oil wick groove.

Groove is cut .120” deep and .250” wide:


The felt is .125” thick F-3. Cut to 5/16” wide it was a really tight fit in the groove:


Last thing is the now famous “diametrically channeled shim”… and a better o-ring (UC70D 116):


The shim is .033” thick JB Weld and coated with cyanoacrylate.

All this for a pistol that cost $7.50…



Wyo

[dv8eod]

Very impressive! Got 2 questions though.
1. How did you get the felt washer on without tearing it?
And 2. What oil are you using on the felt? Pellgun or 20wt or silicone?
All "how-tos" should be this well done. You, sir are the pistol master.👍👍

[Rick67]

It is like watching IP Man do his martial arts  ..

Fun and detailed high resolution photos always make me watch Mr. Gary's posts  ..

[Captain Bravo]

Great write up. Thanks!

[Tom Tucker]

That piston looks great!  I really like the way you did the oil-wiper.

[fv22]

Great mods! I've been pretty happy with mine stock other than the too looooong second stage of trigger pull. I'm going to have to try out some of your ideas

[Xraycer]

It is like watching IP Man do his martial arts  ..

Haha
True that!

[45Bravo]

Very well done.