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.

This is my second P17. This is an incredible air gun, not just for the money, but in general. I like this gun so much, that the one I just bought is a gift for a friend who appreciates fine guns. This is not a powerful gun, but it is amazingly accurate. I have no trouble with dime sized groups at 10m and often just leave a ragged hole in the center of the target. The sights are bright, not too large and adjustable for both windage and elevation. The only complaint I have is that with my large fingers, it is a bit of a challenge to load. As others have mentioned, it does have a heavy cocking stroke, but I am 61 with arthritis, and manage quite well. Believe me, it is worth the effort. Edit: As I read through the negative reviews, it became evident to me that many people did not know exactly what they were purchasing. At the price point, this gun might be attractive as a casual shooter, or as a first gun. So, first, what this gun is NOT. This is not a BB gun. It does not fire multiple shots without reloading. It is not an "airsoft" gun.Above all, this is NOT a TOY. This gun is not at all what you would expect at this price point. So, what is it? This is a single shot, single stoke, pneumatic powered pellet pistol, suitable for serious target shooting, and fun plinking. Pneumatic powered means it fires using compressed air, not a spring loaded plunger. Single stroke means it compresses all of the air needed to fire in one stroke of the cocking lever. Even as small as a .177 cal lead pellet is, it takes a lot of air to move it to 410fps. That makes it something of a challenge to cock. As I mentioned before, this is not a toy, it is a serious gun suitable for building proper shooting skills, and maintaining those skills without spending a lot of money. This is not an Olympic free pistol, but it is incredibly accurate. With this pistol, you can transfer the skills learned to any pistol. This pistol was designed with mature users in mind, who practice good safety, and have reasonable dexterity. Do not trust young people who have never handled a firearm to use this by themselves. Can you hurt yourself with it? Absolutely. If you don't read and follow the manual explicitly, I almost guarantee you will hurt yourself with it. Is that a reason not to buy it? Of course not. Refer to my description of the user for which this was designed. If you read and follow the directions, chances are good you won't injure yourself, and you will enjoy this pistol immensely. Everything thing should work out of the box. If it doesn't, you have a valid complaint. But this is a gun that requires maintenance. Occasionally you may need to tighten a screw, or reseat a pin to keep it working properly. Sooner or later, the seals will wear out. It won't hold air, and the seals will need to be replaced. It needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. In the event that a pellet lodges in the barrel, you need to know you can use your cleaning rod to dislodge it. This gun has much more in common with a "real" firearm. In short, it is NOT what you expect at this price point. It is much more. Use it as such, be prepared to do the routine maintenance, and you will enjoy this gun for years to come. EDIT: I just ordered #3 from Amazon... Not because of issues with my gun, but because I gifted my old one to a friend. I decided I missed it so much, that I had to order another. To comment on another review regarding pellets... This gun is not particularly picky about the pellets it shoots. Yes, pointed pellets are easier to load, but wadcutters while requiring more patience to load, do load and fire just fine. I actually find Wadcutters to be more accurate. Having shot 3 different guns of this model, I have fired just about everything through it , without issue. My favorite pellet for this gun is RWS Meisterkugeln's, closely followed by RWS Hobby's. I have also fired Crosman Premier Hollowpoints, and Gamo Tomahawks. As noted, wadcutters may require more patience, but once you become accustomed to them, they will load as fast as anything else

#1: If you get a bad one (parts missing, broken, falling off, etc.) just return it. Don't abuse Amazon's return policy, but if it is broken out of the "box", well, that is not abuse. #2: if the pistol appears functional, and you want a decent life from it (not limited to ten's or at most a few hundred shots), DON'T cock or attempt to fire it before checking for a common service issue with this pistol. The problem: there is a small hole in the air cylinder that allows air to escape for the very first part of the cocking cycle. The piston O-ring slides over and past this hole, and for the rest of the cocking cycle the pressure builds up. Unfortunately, when this hole is punched/drilled into the cylinder there is often a burr left on the inside of the cylinder at the edge of the hole. Each time the gun is cocked (filled with air), the piston O-ring slides over this burr, quickly cutting a small gouge into the O-ring, soon allowing air to escape so it will not hold pressure when cocked. Sometimes the burr is quite small, so the pistol works quite a while; other times it is larger and the pistol fails to hold pressure after only a few shots. This is a very well known problem with the Chinese version of this (much more expensive) original German design. It is discussed online, with several instructions for partially disassembling the pistol and polishing off this burr, smoothing the hole, leading to a much longer life / high shot count. E.g. search for "Beeman P17 burr". One link that Google will throw up (not the first) will be an article on Pyramyd Air Guns site: "Resealing the Beeman P17 air pistol: Part 1". This check, and repair if there is a burr, is pretty easy. A much rarer leaking problem is covered in their second article "Resealing the Beeman P17 air pistol: Part 2". This second repair is much more intricate, but they give excellent instructions to get you through the details of disassembly and reassembly required, as well as O-ring size, etc. You are unlikely to need this second repair until years into the life of the pistol. As for the pistol itself, they are usually VERY accurate, of reasonable power, and VERY clunky to cock and load. If you are content with a considerable delay between shots as you open the pistol, fish in a new pellet, and then CAREFULLY push closed the very stiff "slide" without pinching your hand as it slams shut, or messing up the rear sight by pushing on it while closing, then you'll be happy with an accurate but slow-firing pistol with a good trigger. This pistol is NOT for delicate women or small children (many is the child mature enough to use this pistol responsibly who will be too weak to cock it safely). They'll not have the strength to cock it, or if they barely but marginally do, are likely to hurt themselves or the pistol doing it. It is also heavy and sized for large hands. The real-he-man, for whom cocking is a mere nothing, may find that his fingers are too large to easily seat the pellet into the breech of the barrel. Some of those with thin delicate fingers may find cocking to be a strain. There is a "middle man" suited for both. If your fingers are really fat, consider a "pellet pen" of some sort to insert the pellet. It isn't as impossible as I make it sound, but people at each end of the spectrum will experience noticeable difficulty in one or the other operation. For the price, it is a nice air pistol, but only for those willing to spend an hour or so inspecting for, and likely correcting, the manufacturing error I've described.

The more I read the reviews - mostly on air gun sites - the more I was convinced that the Beeman P17 / Model 2004 is a superb pistol for the price. I received mine today and after fifty or so shots I can confirm that so far the reviews were accurate. This pistol shoots way above its price class. The trigger is good, as stated in many reviews. The cocking effort is also as reviewed - significant at 28 pounds or so - and not for the weak. My wife was unable to compress the piston. On the other hand, she shot a very tight 5 shot group on her first try. This is a great pistol for practicing shooting fundamentals. I recommend it for stronger adults or kids. For the low price buy one and see for yourself.

I’ve had tons of airguns over the last 40+ years and this is by far the most difficult to load, it’s quite awkward. How it shoots, accuracy etc is all irrelevant if it’s a pain to load. Definitely not recommended for those with big hands or if you have any kind of issues using your hands like cramping or arthritis. Beeman seriously missed the mark on this one……kinda explains the cheap price. Since returns are such a nuisance I’ll keep it as an exercise in futility.

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.

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 :)

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.