Canadian Airgun Forum

I hope nobody thinks that I would consider the P17 for taking game. It might be good for head shots on mice at 5 yards but that's about it. Long distance shooting is just for fun. I rarely get the dead calm wind conditions like the other day but when I do I like to make the best of it. I'll shoot my 750fps springer at 75 yards or the 400fps P17 at 50 yards when the air is dead still.

The P17 is a joy to shoot. I may even buy another when they go on sale for $30 USd (maybe Black Friday). Relatively compact size, acceptable trigger, easy to mount optics, reasonable accuracy, cheap price. It's a good deal for what it does.

Maybe HW 40 ?

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Rifles: Horhe Jager .22 (LW barrel, 4500psi tube), Mp-512, Mp-60
Pistols: 46M, Zoraki HP-01 ultra, 2240, baikal drozd.

TC,

Totally agree...great .177 air pistol that shoots and handles well, all at a great price! I've got mine shooting some really tight groups in my 10yd indoor workshop, but still working on control, technique and breathing. Haven't had an opportunity to take it outside to test its longer-range capabilities. Appreciate your thread showing what is Can Do!

Just finished a little trigger work on my P17 and have it reported HERE. Looks like for ultimate accuracy, the Beeman P17 will be my primary 10yd bulls eye precision tool!

Ted

_________________
RIFLE:
Benjamin Titan XS .177
PISTOLS:
Benjamin Trail NP .177
Umarex Trevox .177
Beeman P17 .177's (2)
Beeman P3 .177
Bear River BOA .177 (2)

Since you had to bring it up, here's another example of the capabilities of the amazing P17. Hate to keep reposting this but since you're new to the forum and a P17 enthusiast, figured I showed a neat trick. Btw welcome to the forum.

topic68502.html
PS: didn't want to steal TCooper's thunder but at least it isn't a thread hijack.

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No, no, it was bigger than that! It looked like a weird monkey-dog thing!
COG First Class Recruit
Gears of War

Nice shooting Ted. The Single Stroke Pneumatic pistols always seem to shoot well. I have had a few Daisy 717 pistols, Webley Nemesis, HW40, HW75 and P17 and all were excellent shooters.

You have some great numbers with the Hobby pellets. Mine does okay with them but I seem to shoot more JSB domes these days. I'll have to try the Hobby at long distance.

I have the same red dot as you use on the P17 but mine has a different brand name. Sometimes I use the Millet and sometimes the Barska like yours.

Thanks TC. The RWS Meisterkugeln 7.0g WC's (@435fps) shoot as accurate as the Hobby 7.0 WC's (@410fps), but give me an awkward flyer 10% of the time. At 40% less cost and No Flyers, the Hobby appears "just right" in my P17. Actually, the Hobby is Also the most accurate and consistent shooter in my Trail NP and Trevox .177 pistols!

The RioRand red\green dot reflex scope seems very good for the price. At it's lowest power, the red dot comes close to filling a 3\16" POI square at 10yds...a dot that is a 3 to 4mm size (not sure how they are measured)? So far, its been working well.

I'm trying to achieve consistent "1-Hole" groupings at this 10m range...maybe after 50-100 tins??? !

Ted

_________________
RIFLE:
Benjamin Titan XS .177
PISTOLS:
Benjamin Trail NP .177
Umarex Trevox .177
Beeman P17 .177's (2)
Beeman P3 .177
Bear River BOA .177 (2)

Thanks Joolz. Great shooting...just continued amazement at what this "inexpensive" air pistol can achieve (when you do Your part)!

Ted

_________________
RIFLE:
Benjamin Titan XS .177
PISTOLS:
Benjamin Trail NP .177
Umarex Trevox .177
Beeman P17 .177's (2)
Beeman P3 .177
Bear River BOA .177 (2)

Impressive!

I have the HW75 and it's very easy to shoot due to its powerplant (single stroke pneumatic) which I believe is almost the same as the P17 / HW40. I would never have dared 50 yards though!

On that note I'll have to sell the HW75 soon, need to follow my own rule of owning no more than 3 airguns and #4 is on the way.

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No scopes on any, just open sights:
- For the power: Norica Marvic 2.0 Luxe rifle (.22 cal)
- For the pleasure: Weihrauch HW30S Rifle (.22 cal)
- For the challenge: Weihrauch HW45 Black Star Pistol (.22 cal)

Riz,

With a 10oz trigger and higher end barrel, the HW75 should be at least as accurate as the P17 \ P3...probably Better!

With a little 1st sear spring stretch and trigger screw adjustment, have my P17 at a smooth 15oz pull & 1\4" pretravel...break Surprises me every time!

TC shows the P17 can still be very accurate at 50 yds (3" groups)...That is Impressive!

Need to try that one day at my sons property!

Ted

_________________
RIFLE:
Benjamin Titan XS .177
PISTOLS:
Benjamin Trail NP .177
Umarex Trevox .177
Beeman P17 .177's (2)
Beeman P3 .177
Bear River BOA .177 (2)

As I've always said, I've never seen a P17 or variant I didn't like for the price. Some do need a little work, but they are very easy to repair. My only complaint would be the loading isn't easy with big fingers.

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Daisy Red Ryder

Yep, took some rounds to get my technique down to loading flat head wad cutters. For me, a "light touch" allows the WC flat head to easily slide on the breech's flat lip till I locate the chamber. After 20 or so rounds, now can load as fast as my break barrels!

Ted

_________________
RIFLE:
Benjamin Titan XS .177
PISTOLS:
Benjamin Trail NP .177
Umarex Trevox .177
Beeman P17 .177's (2)
Beeman P3 .177
Bear River BOA .177 (2)

I have been waiting for another windless day but it's just not happening. Instead of wasting time watching pellets blow around at 50 yards I decided to try some indoor shooting with the P17.

It looked a bit ridiculous but I mounted a Leapers 3-9AO scope so I could have some magnification for precision work. All shooting was from 20 yards with a sandbag rest. All groups were recorded and not cherry picked.

20 Yard Groups

JSB Exact (8.44gr)
.66, .69, .93, .60, .67, .51, .78, .85, .83, .49
.65, .52, .50, .70, .63, .93, .71, .96, .68, .78
20 group average = 0.70" ctc

I tested Crosman Premier HPs but had 4 or 5 groups that were bad enough not to finish shooting them. The CPHP is a good pellet but I also had to shoot a few into the dirt because the fit was a bit loose. A consistent batch of CPHP should be quite accurate with this P17. Here are 9 groups that seemed to look okay (cherry picked groups).

Crosman Premier HP (7.9gr)
.85, .46, .96, .61, .68, .61, 1.13, .53, .62, 1.10
9 group average = 0.76" ctc

TC,

Great 20yd shooting! Seems your P17 really likes the 8.44 JSB Exact's. Need to get some and try them with mine.

Curious if you owned the HW 40 while also having the P17? Do you find better accuracy with the HW 40 (due to it's lighter trigger)? I've wondered if there's anything to gain (with accuracy and performance) in moving from the P17 to say the P3 (equal to the HW 40)?

Ted

_________________
RIFLE:
Benjamin Titan XS .177
PISTOLS:
Benjamin Trail NP .177
Umarex Trevox .177
Beeman P17 .177's (2)
Beeman P3 .177
Bear River BOA .177 (2)

Hi Ted,

I still own the HW40 that I bought in early 1999. It's labelled as a Beeman P3. I'm pretty sure that the HW40/P3 just got to market a few months prior. I bought the P17 in early 2010.

The HW40 trigger is amazing. Mine releases at a crisp 15 oz. The HW40/P3 shoots about the same speed as the P17. My P17 might be 4 or 5fps faster but that can vary from pistol to pistol. My HW40 has seen well over 20,000 shots and still drives tacks at 10 yards.

My HW40 has a very slight accuracy edge over my P17. It's not enough to justify the price difference, IMO. Unfortunately, I haven't tested the HW40 beyond 20 yards. The HW40 enjoys a diet of the old Crosman Premier Light pellets but the quality control on these fell off so I went to the JSBs. The HW40 does almost as well with the JSBs and the difference is so slight that more testing would be needed to say they were not equal. Here is an old comparison that I did 7 years ago. My P17 trigger has greatly improved since the testing.
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Accuracy Test - HW40 vs. P17

Testing accuracy was a bit of a challenge with the trigger pull differences. I did my best to give each pistol a fair chance when shooting from a rest. I mounted the same red dot sight when doing each test. A scope would have been more precise but I don't have any kicking around at the moment and I prefer red dots on my pistols. The POI shift only changed about 7/8" for windage and the same elevation when I moved the red dot from one pistol to the other.

The JSB Exact seemed to shoot well from both pistols so that is the pellet I selected. I could do the testing with 30 different pellets but that would probably take me all summer.

All groups are 5 shots each from 10 metres. For "Test #1" I shot 8 groups for each pistol and selected the best 5 groups.

Test #1
Beeman P17 = .33, .38, .32, .36, .37 - Ave = .35"
Weihrauch HW40 = .32, .29, .30, .33, .29 - Ave = .31"

Test #2
Beeman P17 = .33, .32, .40, .43 - Ave = .37"
Weihrauch HW40 = .38, .26, .33, .32 - Ave = .32"

For the second set of groups I actually shot a couple of extra groups with the P17 but threw them out because of flyers. The heavier trigger was likely a factor that effected my ability.

The difference in accuracy isn't huge but the HW40 does seem to be a bit more accurate. This could be due to the better feeling trigger on the HW40. I might do the tests over again once the P17 trigger improves. The trigger isn't bad right now but it's far from the crisp one pound pull of the HW40.

With a 9X scope, with adjustable objective, I was averaging .28" @10m with JSBs in the HW40. The Crosman Premier averaged .25" but my supply is low right now.

Here is a bit more info if you like reading about the HW40/P3 and P17.

Comparison - topic33212.html?hilit=Beeman P17

My old HW40 Reivew - http://web.archive.org/web/201605081459 ... eview.html

Unfortunately the pics won't show up in the review unless you download the review from the archive site. I lost my web site quite some time ago but this archive space still has it stored... but with a few glitches.