Beeman P17 bought by my wife

[Tater]

Hmm... I'm interested in where you got a spring for the rear sight. I tried looking for one in hardware stores, after one of mine went flying, but I could never find one that was comparable.

I didn't really see the need to wash the barrel(s) on any of mine. 

It is remarkable how precise this pistol can be (once you realize the red-dot sight it comes with is junk). At about 15m, using a scope (wallyworld $7 short version of the crosman 4x15) I'm able to get really small/tight groups, so it is highly likely you could stack pellets @ 13m.   

setscrew mods?

I'd lube the piston with a lite amount of white lithium grease, remove the hand grip, inspect the trigger mechanism (get familiar with its parts), re-attach the hand grip, then shot till there is/was a problem.  Then upgrade the seals when you have to take it apart & troubleshoot the problem(s).

I've watched a ton of videos about these pistols and I don't recall them lubing the piston. Do you have to disassemble or just open it up like you cocking it and smear a bit on the open piston?

no necessity to remove barrel... (in fact, dont unless you have to.) open it and run patches of goo gone through so they fall out of the back. that is it. plus it is going so slow that lead deposits will take forever to build up. i cleaned mine when i got it and havent since...

That is good to know. I ran out out of time yesterday or I probably would have removed the barrel. I'm very glad I didn't and don't need to.

[45Man]

...I've watched a ton of videos about these pistols and I don't recall them lubing the piston. Do you have to disassemble or just open it up like you cocking it and smear a bit on the open piston?...

You only have to pull 1 pin to remove the piston.  You want to lube the big O-ring,  pull the piston & lube it.

[Tater]

You only have to pull 1 pin to remove the piston.  You want to lube the big O-ring,  pull the piston & lube it.

Awesome, that looks simple to do! Thanks for the pics too, very helpful.

[Tater]

@45man: I loosened the set screw but the pin won't budge. Do I have to punch it out with a pin?

Edit: By the way, the set screw wasn't even tight!

I did clean the barrel with Goo Gone though. It was pretty dirty but now squeeky clean. Since my wife was at the store, I decided to take a shot to test it. That thing is so fun to shoot I couldn't stop!   

[althawk]

generally I just get a dab of grease on the piston when its mostly extended and work the grease around the aluminum cylinder, then work it back & forth w/o closing it all the way til it feels like its not dry (well lubed).  See that line in the background? that's approximately where the o-ring is.

from personal experience, don't over do it with the lithium grease. lite & thin. It can build up and muck up the valve.

Yes you'll need to punch it out.


I'll have to find it another time, but I watched a you.tube video this past summer, were the poster had mounted a rather nice, full sized AO 32mm scope onto one of these.  If I recall he was getting good accuracy til it stopped working... "blah blah... it was junk... blah".  If he'd spend the a fraction of the cost of the scope, he could have replaced the seals and been a-okay.

[althawk]

Here is what I use to maintain my p17's:

The Harbor Freight o-ring box is sometimes on sale for $5.99, use the 20% coupon + free item (flashlight, set of screwdrivers, gloves, tape measure, volt meter...etc.) and you walk out of there with too many o-rings for about 5 bucks. They also sell Viton and HBNR o-rings, but I do know the red/blue (SAE/metric) boxes have ALL the sizes needed for 1/2 the price. HF also has a cheaper thing of nitrile o-rings, haven't tried that one.

Best > Better > Good > unreliable
HBNR > Viton > Nitrile > unspecified material o-ring

In theory, HBNR should last longer then Viton.
It is however, unless I'm grossly mistaken, super nitrile (kind of like gorilla tape is super duct tape).

http://www.harborfreight.com/397-piece-metric-o-ring-assortment-67580.html
20x 006's      (Valve & breech)     
18x 008's      (Valve)
14x 116's      (Piston)
52 o-rings you can use for $5, so about $.10 an o-ring.

Then you can do w/e you want with the extra 330+ o-rings they throw in.
The piston o-ring gets the most wear, which is why the Blue (14x) is a better buy then the Red box (13x).

http://www.harborfreight.com/382-piece-o-ring-assortment-67554.html
22x 006's     (valve & breech)
20x 008's     (valve)
13x 116's    (piston)
55x useable(s), unconfirmed since these are SAE. Should be close enough though to work interchangeably, $0.9 per o-ring.

http://www.harborfreight.com/180-piece-viton-o-ring-kit-67525.html       
15x 006's     (Valve & Breech)         
15x 008's     (Valve)
  5x 116's     (Piston)
35x useable o-rings, $9, about $0.27 per o-ring.

http://www.harborfreight.com/205-piece-hnbr-o-ring-kit-67644.html 
15x 008's                   
[** not sure if any of the others fit! If anyone knows please inform, so I can update.**]

http://www.harborfreight.com/225-piece-metric-nitrile-o-ring-assortment-67609.html 
[** not sure if any of these fit! If anyone knows please inform, so I can update.**]


I'm pretty sure, but not 100%, that the chinese p17 uses METRIC,and the german p3 uses SAE o-rings oddly enough.

Couldn't find these when I took the picture, so here are some stock pictures: Rubber Mallet, and misc. hex allen wrench (2mm is the one you use I think?).


If you were extremely thrifty/lazy, you could probably use the o-ring box as an improvised mallet (not recommended).

[rangerfredbob]

Hmm... I'm interested in where you got a spring for the rear sight. I tried looking for one in hardware stores, after one of mine went flying, but I could never find one that was comparable.

No idea where I got the spring, I went digging through my parts bins as I keep all the springs I find from whatever I take apart... all I know is I had cut the spring I found in half to use... also all I had was 6-32 screws (maybe 4-40) and the nut was too big to fit in the hex in the gun, so to the belt sander the nut went . Knowing how the rear sight is put together I don't worry too much about pushing on it when I cock the gun, especially since I put a dab of blue loctite on the nut after the sights were adjusted.

[althawk]

Ah. Well I had improvised, sticking a random o-ring in there.  That has actually worked out well for over a year now, it doesn't wobble up/down as much as the pistols with the spring, when I'm closing the stroke. I might see if its maybe a spring from a pen.  I still remember the moment I lost that sucker like it was yesterday... "huh that rear sight looks a little looser then normal..." *sproing*... "oh ****".

[Tater]

Thank you so much Althawk. I'll get one of those o-ring assortments, I'm sure I'll use a bunch of them sooner or later.
Can anyone else confirm that the rings are metric on P17's?

[lillysdad621]

absolutely. gun made in china as a copy of a pistol from Germany. Metric 100%.

[Tater]

absolutely. gun made in china as a copy of a pistol from Germany. Metric 100%.

Thank you sir.
You guys have all been very helpful in this thread. We've only had time shoot about 30 or so pellets through it but I REALLY love that pistol.

[45Man]

Thank you so much Althawk. I'll get one of those o-ring assortments, I'm sure I'll use a bunch of them sooner or later.
Can anyone else confirm that the rings are metric on P17's?

My HF set of O-rings is so old, the bins are square and not marked, just pick out ones that look close.
Item #31677, 225 Piece Nitrile O-Ring Assortment
18 different sizes from 3/32" x 15/64" to 3/4" x 1"
Label is red, same as the item #67554

I'm sure the Chinese use whatever is the cheapest at the time, could be inch or metric.  Most likely rejects of some kind.

You guys have all been very helpful in this thread. We've only had time shoot about 30 or so pellets through it but I REALLY love that pistol.

Wish I could find a better way to load than placing the pellet on the head of a finishing nail.  Not nearly as easy to load as my IZH-53M

[CFH]

I have owned a P17 now for a couple years, just basement plinking, but a decent little shooter that is certainly easy on the wallet!  

[AmericanPsycho]

Maybe the GBB Sig P226-X5 would be better suited for her.