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.

I like the weight and feel of the gun, and the convenience of not having to use a CO2 cartridge. Not very powerful but decent power of 400+ FPS for a single pump (you can only pump it once for every shot). It automatically goes to safety after pumping so you'll have to switch it back to fire each time before you shoot. It is accurate. One thing I don't like about the design is that it is difficult to load the pellet even if you don't have fat fingers because of the cramped space. But I did find a simple solution to this problem. I put a pellet at the end of a bamboo barbecue stick and load it from the end, makes loading so much easier and problem solved! Another thing I think is a design flaw is that the sights are secured/adjusted with a screw and a hex nut. When I got my gun and opened the package, the screw, hex nut and spring for the rear sight fell out. The screw must have backed out during shipment. The hex nut could have been a lock nut so the screw will not back out. Or maybe instead of using a hexnut the screw could screwed into the frame itself. But despite all that, I'm still happy with the purchase and I still recommended it.

This is awesome. Though the single shot makes you have to reload much of the time if plinking. It is basically just closing (1 pump) For real look/metal, heft is great and power. Prob the best pellet pistol I’ve had that don’t need CO2 for or another external power. If you want a pistol one that don’t look like a space gun or toy. That kill small vermin or target shoot. If you want to shoot rapidly though no. Loudish pop. Watch not to pinch your hand when closing. Hard for kids to close on own. Got to also put pellet in small space. So for those reasons I’d say really is 4.75 stars. It is what it says. Trigger pull not too hard. Safety great. Sights great. Power great. For a compact air pistol that doesn’t need CO2 is nice (as others seem much longer and less powerful and not really dimensions of a pistol) is a good deal.

Don't. Just don't. Don't buy this gun. Several reasons... The unavoidable: It is difficult to load a pellet. The advice is to buy pointed pellets to make it easier to reach the barely visible barrel hole. After that, it still requires dexterity to load the pellet, and maybe a pair of reading glasses. And it gets worse! Closing the slide to return to battery requires real arm strength. And watch out for blood blisters. If, when you finally wrestle it closed, you get any part of your skin trapped, Ouch! And that's just the beginning. My first pellet gun from the company arrived in a cracked open blister pack with a screw floating inside the shipping box. Later, when I tried to operate the gun, a nut fell out of the gun and onto the floor. Returning the product was not easy. It required Amazon to go to bat for me. And when I finally got a replacement, the second gun flat-out would not fire. It didn't work!!! It was brand new, and it wouldn't work! Still doesn't after much effort. All I can do now is to spend more money and return it to the manufacturer. Wish me luck on that one. My advice? Read the first word of this review.

This is a single shot, single pellet, single pump/stroke pistol. You load one pellet at a time. Please know that before buying. It is still very enjoyable to shoot it. And for the price....just can’t beat this deal. So I had to buy this gun after reading all the awesome reviews and looking at the price. My local airgun shop has the original Weirauch version for like 2 and a half big bills and it looks, feels and shoots the same but it’s also 8 times the price of this one. So after a long delay due to the fires in California I received mine. The plastic packaging was definitely cut open so this was a previously enjoyed gun. It did look new but someone opened this one and probably sent it back. I believe it was returned due to the ridiculous amount of force needed to pump this gun. It’s a single pump air pistol which is done by separating the to portion of the gun from the bottom portion. Like separating the slide from the frame on a real pistol but this one pivots at the front of the barrel. Closing this airgun which completes the one pump cycle is extremely hard. Super hard. No kid can do it. I can do it because I’m an adult but my wife could t close it. Once the gun is separated or open that’s where you load the pellet on the back of the exposed barrel. It’s not fat finger friendly and it requires a bit of practice to load the pellets correctly and fast, but you get used to it. You load one pellet at a time. Shoot it and then repeat the cycle of opening the gun, loading the pellet and closing the gun which gives it the one pump required to shoot. The gun is fairly quiet. The gun is super accurate for what it is. It’s a very slow shooting airgun. It’s advertised at about 410fps and it will shoot that speed and a bit more with lead pellets, IF YOU GET A GOOD GUN. I have 2 of these, one shooting at 410 FPS and the other shooting at 380 FPS. So make sure you get yours chronoed to see if you got a good one. My slow one came in with the box opened like someone had returned it, so it’s going back for replacement. Hopefully I’ll get another fast one. You can hit soda cans pretty easy as the sights are amazing. But since there’s no speed from the gun, there will be no penetration. I was shooting pellet tins to test it and every single pellet ricocheted back without penetrating the tin. I was able to shoot a 4 inch bullseye at 15 yards with it. After 15 yards you loose accuracy big time. I shot several different pellets thru it and was very accurate. My opinion is if you’re an adult trying to get something really cheap to knock down empty soda cans, get one. You’ll like it. If you’re buying this for you kid, don’t buy it unless you want to be there cocking the gun every time. It’s too hard to cock for a young one.

Normally the only air pistols that interest me are match pistols- those capable of making one-hole groups at 10 meters, with triggers that can be set to just a few ounces. But I’ve heard so many good things about the P17 that when I saw it at Amazon for under $33, I decided to bite and see why it had such a strong following. The P17 is a Beeman-licensed, Chinese manufactured, copy of the Beeman P3, which itself is a rebranded HW40 manufactured by Weihrauch in Germany. The Weirauch gun is all metal gun that sells for around $240. What kind of quality and performance can you get for one seventh of that? Ive never handled a P3, but I have owned two Weirauch HW45s, which Beeman markets as the P1. They’re excellently made, with all the quality you expect of fine German guns. The P17, on the other hand, feels like a well made toy. It’s mostly plastic, with a few metal parts- barrel, cylinder, trigger, and sear. I wouldn’t expect it to last as long as a P3, but if decently cared for it should last a few years. The pumping system is the same as that found on the FAS 6004 and the Game Compact, and it cocked and loaded the same way: The upper part of the gun is unlatched via what looks like a hammer at the rear of the gun, and hinged forward. A pellet s inserted at the breech of the barrel, and the barrel/arm is hinged back into place, compressing air in the cylinder and cocking the trigger. This takes a surprisingly high amount of effort, far more than the FAS 6004 or the Game Compact. I don’t know if this is because the energy is higher, or because the cocking geometry is poorer, but there it is. It definitely takes an adult to do it. Once cocked, the slide safety is automatically engaged- an excellent feature on a gun designed for beginners, I think, and perhaps a necessary for experienced shooters as well, given the contortions you have to go through to cock it. The adjustable sights are inexpensive but cleverly designed, using short pieces of “light pipe” plastic to create luminous dots under reasonably bright illumination. They’re the sort of sights you’d put on a combat gun, not one designed for shooting at paper targets, though, so while they’re very easy to see and quick to acquire, they’re not ideal for paper punching. The trigger is… well, not wretched, but not very good. Its’s not too heavy, but it’s very long, You can’t feel the break coming, s there’s no way to stage it. The best technique I found was to get a good target hold while quickly and smoothly pulling straight through. Shooting two handed, I got groups under an inch at 10 meters with the stock sights. I then tried attaching a Millet dot sight that costs twice as much as the gun, and shooting one handed, as if I were shooting Bullseye. After a few shots to get the Millet more-or-less on target, I got the equivalent of around 485 out f 600 shooting at a standard ISSF Air Pistol 10m target. That’s actually not bad, considering how horrid the trigger is when compared to even a cheap match gun like the Gamo Compact. In summary, then, The plusses: Surprisingly accurate Really Cheap Fairly well made High velocity for a single stroke pneumatic You can mount a scope or dot sight Recoilless Minuses: Horrible trigger Very high cocking force Sights are wrong for precision shooting I’d have to say that all things considered it’s an excellent value, a more accurate plinker than anything else in its price range, and a good budget choice for learning basic pistol marksmanship- especially if you can’t afford anything better.

It is powerful budget pistol... you get the fps speed and power of a CO2 or multi-pump pistol... yet it's a single pump gun at a real low price. The construction is decent for a value gun with fiber optic on both sights. You can spend 10 shots sighting it and it will shoot quarter-to-dime size groups at 5-10+ yards depending on your skill. The trigger could be better, but what do you expect for under 50 bucks? Get the P3 version if you want higher quality parts and "heirloom" durability. You will be impressed this P17 gun was not priced at $80-100 or more when you handle and shoot it though. It does take a bit of getting used to to load the pellet (push its skirt all of the way into the barrel end) and pump the cock piston down without pinching your hand (watch YT videos... use your palm not the fingers), but it's pretty easy once you learn it. I would NOT call this a beginner gun (spring BB pistol or pump rifle is probably better for that). The P17 shot well and cycled every type of pellets I tried without problems. Like any 177 "pellet only" gun, this can also use BBs with a tiny wisp of cotton ball in front of the BB. The BBs won't be accurate due to rifled barrel, and it's not worth it in this gun. Some hardcore airgun peeps will tell you that using BBs ruins the barrel accuracy for pellets over time... do what you want, though. This is a good gun but ain't exactly a competition accuracy or powerful enough for hunting, lol. Beeman P17 is a fantastic A+ garage gun since it is way more accurate and powerful than spring BB/pellet pistols in the price range, it is single pump (tons and tons of pumping to use 1377 type pistols in the garage for more than a few shots). Unlike CO2 pistols, you can do just a few shots or many without needing more cartridges and money. The P17 Beeman is also accurate enough to be a possible backpack/survival gun and the sights won't get damaged like glow paint on a 1377 would. Look elsewhere you like to hunt squirrel/pest with 177 caliber pistol and fixed sights... you need a 177 rifle or higher fps pistol (or 22cal) to do that humanely... this gun is just likely to wound an animal, so please don't be that guy. If you want a truly great value on a varmint hunting rifle, Beeman QB78 series is amazing... much like this pistol, it should cost 2-3x what it does (solid accuracy, power, build). Overall, this P17 aka 2004 Beeman pistol is HIGHLY recommended, and I already ordered an additional for the get-home bag I keep in the trunk. I just wish it came in 22cal version also (like the 1377/1322 multi pump), but that'd probably be too hard to cock the piston if it built up enough power to zip a 22 pellet? One can wish :)