Beeman P17-Cheap pistol with a great trigger

[Tinknocker1]

dang mine don't have the fiber optic sights 

You must have an older gun?

yea i do    great little pistol though

[Slavia]

The inner tube rubber doesn't need stippling - it's tacky if you keep it clean.  The palm shelf and thumb rest grip extensions are wood with a bed liner finish - screws on the outside go into turned-down "T" nuts on the inside.  Cocking with the red-dot is not hard.  I use the web between the thumb and index finger.  The "adhesive strip" you spotted is a piece of padded toolbox liner held on with double-faced tape for more comfort.  I replaced the "wood" type barrel screws with machine screws and "T" nut anchors, and the pad also hides those.  The modification to the rear sight is a bubble level to manage cant.

The muzzle and breech crowns of the barrel were polished, and the barrel was bedded in epoxy.  The transfer port in the valve body was drilled out from 0.098" to 0.125", which only gave an additional 5 FPS but greatly improved consistency (standard deviation in a shot string's velocities).  The two pins at the rear kept working out, so I super-glued in the threaded barrels of "T" nuts with setscrews (the holes are already there in the plastic casting).  A little Loctite would probably have worked just as well.

I scraped a penknife along the ledge on the bottom/front to undercut a dovetail for two rings from one of those cheap 15mm BB gun scopes.  That holds the flashlight, and the light serves as the mount for a homemade bipod.

The target knobs on the scope are Radio Shack knobs on 1/4" bolts soldered directly to the slotted brass turret screws.  Ballistic information is adhered to the inside of the flip-up caps.  There are hammer spur extensions, which are simply socket head cap screws threaded into the spur.

The trigger parts were deburred, honed, and polished, and pop can shims were added against side play.  The trigger face was grooved by dragging a tap sideways, and there is an overtravel limiter screw in a brass screw anchor super-glued into the trigger guard.  Empty recesses in the clamshells were filled with a mix of BB's and epoxy to add weight and balance the weight of the scope.

The case is a former power tool case from a garage sale, partitioned with construction styrofoam and polar fleece fabric.

This didn't happen one Sunday afternoon - it took place over several years.  The daughter calls it "visually excessive."

[Minuteman]

The inner tube rubber doesn't need stippling - it's tacky if you keep it clean.  The palm shelf and thumb rest grip extensions are wood with a bed liner finish - screws on the outside go into turned-down "T" nuts on the inside.  Cocking with the red-dot is not hard.  I use the web between the thumb and index finger.  The "adhesive strip" you spotted is a piece of padded toolbox liner held on with double-faced tape for more comfort.  I replaced the "wood" type barrel screws with machine screws and "T" nut anchors, and the pad also hides those.  The modification to the rear sight is a bubble level to manage cant.

The muzzle and breech crowns of the barrel were polished, and the barrel was bedded in epoxy.  The transfer port in the valve body was drilled out from 0.098" to 0.125", which only gave an additional 5 FPS but greatly improved consistency (standard deviation in a shot string's velocities).  The two pins at the rear kept working out, so I super-glued in the threaded barrels of "T" nuts with setscrews (the holes are already there in the plastic casting).  A little Loctite would probably have worked just as well.

I scraped a penknife along the ledge on the bottom/front to undercut a dovetail for two rings from one of those cheap 15mm BB gun scopes.  That holds the flashlight, and the light serves as the mount for a homemade bipod.

The target knobs on the scope are Radio Shack knobs on 1/4" bolts soldered directly to the slotted brass turret screws.  Ballistic information is adhered to the inside of the flip-up caps.  There are hammer spur extensions, which are simply socket head cap screws threaded into the spur.

The trigger parts were deburred, honed, and polished, and pop can shims were added against side play.  The trigger face was grooved by dragging a tap sideways, and there is an overtravel limiter screw in a brass screw anchor super-glued into the trigger guard.  Empty recesses in the clamshells were filled with a mix of BB's and epoxy to add weight and balance the weight of the scope.

The case is a former power tool case from a garage sale, partitioned with construction styrofoam and polar fleece fabric.

This didn't happen one Sunday afternoon - it took place over several years.  The daughter calls it "visually excessive."

Wow, that's quite a project. Looking great so far! (These things are never finished) 

[TleVta]

This didn't happen one Sunday afternoon - it took place over several years.  The daughter calls it "visually excessive."

Mm--yeah, that's a lot of gear. Pretty cool, though. I ordered one yesterday.

[althawk]

"How difficult is cocking the gun with that on top? I'd love to put one on mine, but I use the palm of my hand to push down on the top of the gun."

Admittedly I use a different sight, but its really not as hard as you'd think, just have to adjust your hold/hand to cock & pump with sights/scopes [SEE : pics].
Seems like common sense, but be sure to take some extra care when you're closing it up not to pinch your fingers, I can definitely see how it can happen. For the most part the grooves keep my fingers from slipping.

Interested in knowing when the manufacturer started adding fiber optic, assuming its new for 2013. 
The white-out dot option works pretty well on the 'older' models.

Believe this to be the manufacturer:
Weifang Huadong Air Rifle Co.
http://www.hdag-airrifle.com/index.html

[Minuteman]

I am enjoying this gun, but the dovetail is lousy. I put a dot scope on it just for fun and I tightened it like I would for any gun, which is not having King Kong do it for me, and now it's all chewed up.  Anyone else run into this? I am thinking about putting an aluminum rail on top, but I am not sure that there is enough plastic on top to handle even short screws and clear the barrel. Suggestions? 

[Slavia]

You could use a "T" nut from the hardware store.  Cut the prongs off and put the flange inside.  (Some are already flat - instead of prongs they have holes for brads.)  Sizes down to 6-32 are commonly available.

[robert w]

You could use a "T" nut from the hardware store.  Cut the prongs off and put the flange inside.  (Some are already flat - instead of prongs they have holes for brads.)  Sizes down to 6-32 are commonly available.

slavia is an expert on things like this and he is usually right too

[Slavia]

I do like "T" nuts, that's a fact.  Except after thinking about it for a while it comes to me that the answer might be even simpler than that.

It took me a while to remember, but I also had problems with the dovetail.  The problem was that the plastic came to a sharp point, while the inside corner of the scope dovetail was radiused a bit.  Instead of having two broad, flat surfaces for clamping, I had the mount resting on a single point.  All it took was a little scraping with a pocket knife to knock the point off.  You'll be able to tell visually if this is the case with yours.

[Minuteman]

I do like "T" nuts, that's a fact.  Except after thinking about it for a while it comes to me that the answer might be even simpler than that.

It took me a while to remember, but I also had problems with the dovetail.  The problem was that the plastic came to a sharp point, while the inside corner of the scope dovetail was radiused a bit.  Instead of having two broad, flat surfaces for clamping, I had the mount resting on a single point.  All it took was a little scraping with a pocket knife to knock the point off.  You'll be able to tell visually if this is the case with yours.

Ok, so I would measure the length of the mount I will be using, then take a knife or maybe even a jewelers file and remove the sharp edges. Then it should clamp more securely. Great. Thanks, Slavia.

[Tad]

I have a red dot on mine, slid as far forward as possible.  I have no problem cocking, but I do press on rear sight, which doesn't matter since I'm using the red dot.  In another discussion, a guy recommended the opposite, the red dot as close to you as possible.  Different strokes for different folks.

I read a post (somewhere) where a guy took apart both the German and Chinese guns.  Although the Chinese gun used stamped metal parts and the quality control was much better on the German gun, he felt the parts were interchangeable.  Accuracy wise, the German gun was maybe 5% more accurate, but I'm thinking you might see the same variation in two guns made in the same place.

The trigger breaks cleanly and predictably, but I don't care for the amount of travel in the "second" stage.  The trigger is adjustable, but it just seems to alter the amount of "first stage".

Put a .22 barrel on it?  Why?  It does about 360 fps with an 8 gr. pellet.  What would be the advantage of .22?

[Cathartes]

I was working on another P17 today and I realized I told you wrong on the o-rings. I said the 006s were the valve and breech seal, but that is the seal on the tip of the valve stem. You need 008s (http://www.theoringstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=367_123_129&products_id=5422) for the breech seal and the upper valve seal. Going to go back and edit my post to make sure nobody gets confused in the future by it.

[TleVta]

Since this is a pumper, is it O.K. to leave it cocked?

[wern0r]

I wouldn't leave it cocked because the pressure will do a permanent force against the seals.

[stalwart]

Since this is a pumper, is it O.K. to leave it cocked?

If you need your piece to remain ready, and the seals are cheap...I'd go for it. It appears maintenance on these is easy enough to be fun. Been following this thread, and it convinced me to put 1 on the "to do" list.

[mikeiniowa]

I have some with .177 barrels and .22...where can the .20 barrels be had??? may get some...

[wern0r]

Sorry, I've only a german source: http://www.versandhaus-schneider.de/product_info.php/products_id/8569

[stalwart]

What kind of speeds are these pushing .20 and .22s?

[Tucannon]

I need to get a P17 

[CAP207]

I had a Beeman P17 and I still have a Beeman P3.  They are made to look exactly the same but the P3 has much better attention to fit and finish and probably better internal parts.  The P-3 cocks much smoother than the P17 but they shoot very similarly - both have good triggers.  In holding one right after the other in the shooting hand, you can feel the difference.  For the P17, I had to use a very sharp knife and extremely fine sandpaper to clean up the edges off the lip in the plastic where the two halves went together.  The P3 came out of the box very clean with no fitting issues.  I also found that the air cylinder in the P17 was "coarser" than the P3 air cylinder.  They just felt different when cocking them with the P3 being way more smooth.  I really liked the P17, especially since it was so inexpensive in comparison to the P3.  I sold it for about what I paid for it since I have the P3 and I preferred to better finished, smoother pistol.  I use the P3 for indoor bedroom shooting of about 15'.  It's nice and quiet and very accurate with a very smooth let-off in the trigger.  I don't shoot it very often now since I recently acquired 2 P1's (.177 and .22) and an older Tempest in .177 for indoor shooting.