Beeman Sportsman Series Deluxe Air Pistol - Model 2004

I am a airgun collector and have been for over 50 years. I started when I was about 11 years old. I have handled all types of airguns and pistols. I own more than 50 by now and this is one of my favorite guns to shoot.I have read all the reviews to get a feel of what this air gun was like and how it was designed. At this stage of my life I am fortunate enough to be able to buy whatever I choose so price is not an issue with me. I have two of the P17s. I have had them for about 5 months now and have had no problems at all. I know some people say they will leak and some have had bad experiences with them right away. But no product is perfect every time. It is really not hard to replace the O rings if they fail. You can get pictured instruction to show you how to do this on the web. I thought about doing this when I first got my guns but since they worked great right out of the package I decided to wait until something goes wrong. Going back 30 or 40 years the quality control of Chinese made air guns left a lot to be desired. One of the reason I own so many Chinese made air guns is because I have in some cases 3 or 4 of the exact same model. I have four B3 air rifles. One is a gem. It shoots as accurate as some of my 5 or 6 hunderd dollar German made models another is very good and the other 2 I just have for parts because they spray pellets all over no matter what tunning I have tried. That being said the qulity of the 2 P17s I own is outstanding for the price paid. One shoots an average 380 fps on my Chroni. and the other 391 with the same RWS pellets. Yes they take effort to cock but you do not need CO2 and you only need one pump to be able to shoot. What I like best, other than the price is that the trigger is very light and smooth and these guns are very accurate. I do not care how cool a gun looks or how much it costs if it cannot shoot straight I will not use it. Since it is only a one pump gun it should not be used for hunting or pest control but it is geart to practice with, for target shooting and plinking. I have since bought a P3 just to see what the differences were. On gross inspection they look almost the same. Both have adjustable rear sights. The P3 has fiber optics on both the front and rear sights. That is nice but not neccessary to shoot straight. they both have a scope rail built into a polimer frame. I think it is 11 mm. this is nice if you want to mount a red dot sight. I have done s on both of my P 17s. with these I get 3/4 inch or less groupings at 10 yards rested. Free hand I do not do nearly as well but that is because I cannot hold the gun as steady as I would like and not he fault of the gun. Inside you can tell that the P3 is made from better materials but the P17s are made with metal too but with aluminum for the compresion chamber. I believe the design is the important part. Both the P17 and P3 are built the same way. I really like the P3 and it will probably last longer without maintenance but it also costs 4 to 5 times as much. If you do not get a lemon I guarentee you will not get a better air pistol than the P17 for the money. If you compare it to some of the CO2 air pistols you will see what I mean. The only pistol that comes close in my opinion is the Crosman 2240 and you need CO2 to power it and you need to upgrade it to a steel breach to be able mount a scope securly. The 2240 is a nice pistol too but like I mentioned it needs CO2 to work were the P17 you can just pick up and use. If you do get a P17 that has problems you can return it to Amazon with no hassle. Two more things, if you do buy the P17 I would suggest getting some type of rubber grip sleeve or decal to put on the grip. The gun itself is not small and because the frame is made from a form of tough plastic it can feel slipery. you can get them on Amazon for 10 to 15 dollars. Lastly, if you mount a red dot sight mount it as far forward on the frame as you can so that you have room to place your hand when you push closed the compression chamber. Don't let any of the negative reviews keep you from buying this gun. I am sure you will be greatly impressed. I know I have been. I do not work for Beeman. I am just a very pleased buyer.

I just received this today and put about 50 pellets through it. After adjusting the sight I was able to consistently hit the bottom and top of a soda can from 30 feet away. Many reviews and articles on this gun have reported that some of the bolts can be loose and that a burr on the air intake hole inside the pump chamber can damage the O ring, leading to early pump failure. Before shooting the gun, I immediately took the piston out to check for the burr, but mine was perfectly smooth. This is very easy to do, but most articles fail to mention where the intake hole is: once you pull the piston, look near the the open end of the pump chamber for a very small hole. I also tightened all of the visible screws: most were slightly loose, including the two Phillips screws that hold the barrel in place. As others have noted, this gun requires a lot of hand strength to close the barrel assembly. However, with practice I found this got easier. It is also initially difficult to load a pellet, but I also found that this got much easier. I can imagine that this would be much harder for people with larger hands. I find the fiber optic sights to be excellent--even better than the sights on some of the high quality handguns that I've shot at the range. The gun is also not all that loud. When shooting outside I didn't feel that I needed hearing protection. I don't have much experience with air pistols, but my dad recently bought a Sig P226 CO2 air pistol that I shot around 100 pellets through. The Sig is largely metal and really does look and feel like the real thing. The Sig's 8x2 shot magazine is nice since you can take 8 shots in a row as fast as you can pull the trigger, then flip the magazine and take 8 more shots. However, only the first few shots are at full power and unless you count shots there is no way to know whether you are out of pellets. You also need a good supply of CO2 canisters and it is difficult to judge when you need to replace the canister. Overall, I prefer the feel of the P226, but the single shot consistency of the Beeman. Yes, the Beeman is largely plastic, but it is only 1/3 the cost of the P226. Finally, my son and I were taking turns shooting at splatter targets and cans tonight. It would have been nice to have two guns so that one of us could load while the other aims and shoots. Of course, at the price of this gun, it is easy to justify buying two. Overall, I'm very impressed with this gun. For the price it seems hard to beat especially given the accuracy and nice trigger. I usually don't expect much from Chinese copies, especially at this low a price, but this gun is an exception. There is also a lot of information online about how to fix various issues that might arise, such as how to replace the O rings. That makes the gun an even better value.

This is a good little air pistol for the price. It's a bit more challenging to pump, feels a little cheap, and could be a little more accurate, but for the price it can't be beat. I'd recommend it.