Author Topic: P-17 cost vs value of my time tinkering with it (Read 962 times))

buellm2 · « **on:** February 25, 2020, 04:08:51 PM »

I've got several thousand pellets thru my first P-17. Nice trigger, pretty good shooter. Had quite a number of failures to fire for various reasons. Spent a lot of time reading how to fix it, taking it apart, lubing, polishing, cleaning, replacing seals and other fiddling to get it back in action only to have it cr-p out again after a few more shots. Then, do it all over again, and again, and again.
I bought a second P-17, no reliability problems so far but it had an unbelievably bad trigger. So took that one apart and did some careful filing and polishing. The trigger was better but still not as nice as the first one. So, I took them both apart and swapped all the internals except for the piston/valve assembly. Now number 1 seems to be running reliably and number 2 has a much better trigger.
The downside was the pain in the bum of unreliability and my time spent tinkering. Cost of gun divided by tinkering hours puts my hourly rate way below minimum wage. But the upside is all the tinkering was actually kind of fun and I can now disassemble and reassemble the P-17 almost as fast as Forest Gump.

Matchstickshooter · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2020, 06:23:24 PM »

Dave, I was going to say, I hope you got some personal satisfaction out of tinkering and making it good again.
I always do!

JMHO

Rob M · « **Reply #2 on:** February 25, 2020, 06:28:17 PM »

i know the feeling very well

20200112_091405 by murphyrobert9, on Flickr

must have had 10 hrs in it

Matchstickshooter · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2020, 06:57:28 PM »

WOW,Rob! LOL specs?

Rob M · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2020, 06:58:39 PM »

Quote from: Matchstickshooter on February 25, 2020, 06:57:28 PM

WOW! LOL specs?

30 cal pcp.. 14 fpe

Matchstickshooter · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2020, 06:59:36 PM »

Nice!!! LOL! How many shots to a fill?

buellm2 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2020, 08:41:23 PM »

So Rob, I'm not sure that qualifies as tinkering.

Rob M · « **Reply #7 on:** February 25, 2020, 08:50:29 PM »

before i got to the conversion , id done 100s of hours tinkering on the p17..i tinkered soo much i threw out 5 p17s i did too much damage to.. mostly with the pump mechanism ..

Robert 5mm · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2020, 09:10:08 PM »

Part of my enjoyment is tinkering - the cheapo airguns allows me to do this without screwing up the expensive ones.
My time on a hobby is not a chargeable item...
so I guess I do not understand what the value of your time means.

buellm2 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 26, 2020, 06:33:24 PM »

I'm not sure I've ever owned a gun as troublesome as the P-17. If you don't enjoy tinkering, there is just no economic sensibility to spending hours trying to fix it when it's so cheap to buy a new one. There are many things I could be doing that have a higher economic value than learning how to fix a $26.00 item. Of course many of those things aren't all that much fun to be doing.

Bentong · « **Reply #10 on:** February 26, 2020, 06:57:09 PM »

Got 2 of the Amazon $7.50 P-17's...all I've done is lighten up the trigger a bit buy pulling the trigger spring a tad and adjusted the set screw to shorten up the 1st stage. Had to put a dot sight for I can't see a darn thing with open sights. Money well spent on these P-17 pistols.

Matchstickshooter · « **Reply #11 on:** February 27, 2020, 02:13:40 PM »

Quote from: Bentong on February 26, 2020, 06:57:09 PM

Got 2 of the Amazon $7.50 P-17's...all I've done is lighten up the trigger a bit buy pulling the trigger spring a tad and adjusted the set screw to shorten up the 1st stage. Had to put a dot sight for I can't see a darn thing with open sights. Money well spent on these P-17 pistols.

I have been trying to revive a XSP 120D (fore runner to the P17) and I finally broke down and bought a new P17 on Ebay.
Funny, I traded one off a while back....

Anyway, the new one's wearing a Tasco Red Dot, at the moment. It's a big help.
I would love to try a pistol scope, someday.

Robert 5mm · « **Reply #12 on:** February 27, 2020, 03:37:02 PM »

How do you close the action with a scope or a red dot mounted ?

Duckfish · « **Reply #13 on:** February 27, 2020, 03:51:43 PM »

Quote from: Robert 5mm on February 27, 2020, 03:37:02 PM

How do you close the action with a scope or a red dot mounted ?

Vewry vewry carefulwy

Matchstickshooter · « **Reply #14 on:** February 27, 2020, 04:03:56 PM »

Quote from: Robert 5mm on February 27, 2020, 03:37:02 PM

How do you close the action with a scope or a red dot mounted ?

I have my red dot mounted as far forward as possible.
Leaves me enough room for the width of my palm on the back end.
Don't know what it would be like, closing with a scope, but I have seen them being used.

dan_house · « **Reply #15 on:** February 27, 2020, 04:04:37 PM »

Quote from: Duckfish on February 27, 2020, 03:51:43 PM

Quote from: Robert 5mm on February 27, 2020, 03:37:02 PM
How do you close the action with a scope or a red dot mounted ?

Vewry vewry carefulwy

While I have NOT pinched a nipple yet, I have given myself multpile "blood blisters" on my finger tip or thumbtip from gripping it wrong during the cocking stroke.

Matchstickshooter · « **Reply #16 on:** February 27, 2020, 07:04:20 PM »

I became careful after the first "half dozen" times!

Duckfish · « **Reply #17 on:** February 27, 2020, 07:39:09 PM »

I bought one from PA. It didn't work right so PA gave me my money back and said keep the gun it's not worth sending back. I ordered an HW 40. It works great. I liked it so much I ordered an HW 75.

buellm2 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 27, 2020, 08:01:12 PM »

I tried a red dot and a long eye relief pistol scope on my P-17. I didn't like them all that much because of the additional attention required during the closing stroke. But I didn't leave either one mounted long enough to give them a fair chance. I might try again one of these days.

I sure wish I had spotted the $7.50 sale before it was over.

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P-17 cost vs value of my time tinkering with it

Author Topic: P-17 cost vs value of my time tinkering with it (Read 962 times))