Flying Dragon P17 work?

[Jerrycup]

Hey, Mike!

I bought one of those Beeman P17's from Pyramyd a couple of weeks ago.

It's still working OK, and I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. Handles like a real handgun, and seems pretty accurate.

For about $36 shipped, it is so cheap you have to hold your nose and hope that you win the gamble of getting one put together properly.

I'm thinking, this looks like an item you might go into and replace some of the key seals, lubricate it right, and then you could have some confidence. Have you worked on these?

Found a great website with a lot of information and pictures. A guy named Derrick has done a fine job showing some of the repairs and common issues.

http://anotherairgunblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/derricks-short-list-for-beeman-p17.html

[mikeiniowa]

I can take it apart and lube it no problem, modifying them is very time consuming and doesn't yield much if any velocity improvements...Mike

[larspawn]

I like mine and one mod I'd pay for is someone to open up the breech end of the barrel.  You have to be a microsurgeon to get the pellets in there!

It does shoot nice with a nice red dot on it.  Nice to mix it up with pistols during the long Midwest winters.  In fact, I bought two Izzy 53ms so I could shoot one right hand and one left hand.  Yes, the 3 or4  months of winter her get ya pretty bored!

Andy Wong aka larspawn

[Jerrycup]

I'm hoping that it will hold on, but if it does go flakey, I was thinking it would benefit from deburring and seal replacements. They probably use all the wrong lubes. Not really looking for performance improvement. Thanks, I will advise if it blows a seal or o-ring.

[JQR]

I have a dead P17 on the shelf. Almost all seem to go bad where the o-ring on the piston rides over the air inlet. I replaced that o-ring 2 times then gave up after a crude attempt to smooth those edges. Also watch the trigger. Lots of folks (including me) have found that the gun just won't fire sometimes. Most of the time the work around was pointing into the dirt and tapping the gun on my shoe until it fired. Adjusting the nut on the valve release (requires separating the handle and watching for free'd springs) solved that problem... for a while.

Despite the problems, I really did like the gun and bought a P3. I think it was overlubed as power is low/inconsisitent but otherwise has held up great. Not an issue in my basement or backyard as long as I seat each pellet (or it'll jam when the power is on the low end).  Very accurate even with the power issue out to 12-15y. I would trust it to 20y if the power were more consistent (any further is just pushing it for a 390fps pistol). Mine has a great trigger, almost too light.