Page 5 - Beeman P1 Reviews

I had a P1 years ago, but sold it. I missed it, and finally decided to get another. As before, I like that it more-or-less looks like you would expect a pistol to look, and not like a rifle with the stock and barrel cut down. Mostly tho, the relative high level of power achieved with a single cocking motion without any need for CO2 or compressed air is what I like. All you need is the pistol and some pellets. It is a very accurate pistol too, but it does make you work for this accuracy. It doesn't forgive you if you aren't consistent. My pistol seems to like Lasers the best (.177), which is OK with me because they are relatively light/fast. They are averaging about 580 FPS from my pistol (at 6.9 gr each I think). With a very loose isosceles hold, in which the weight of the pistol is completely carried by my non-shooting hand (left hand), I've improved to the point where I can group about 3/4 inch at 30 feet. While that's not great, I seem to have better luck hitting objects. At 30 yards, I can hit a tuna can about 1 in 4, and get very close the other 3 times. I mostly bought it for plinking anyway.

These newer P1's come with fiber-optic sights now. They don't look very good, but I admit they do show up well against darker backgrounds. However, the front sight is still very thick/wide, and when you're shooting at smaller targets, it is difficult to center the front sight under the bullseye. If the front sight were solid (the blade is carved-out in the middle to accommodate the fiber insert), I would file it into a thinner blade, but it's not practical to do with so much metal already missing. Even tho they show up well in low-light conditions, I would make the fiber sights an option, not standard. Also, it would be nice if the price were lower, but until a Chinese copy comes out, I don't expect this to happen.

My first P1 did have a problem with the rear sight retention pin working loose, but so far this one is staying together. Don't be discouraged too soon if you have a hard time hitting with it. Develop a loose, but consistent, hold, and follow-thru with every shot. I'm giving it a 4 for accuracy only because of it's temperament regarding consistency.

Power, accuracy, the feel of the gun

Lower price would be nice :D, otherwise nothing.

I bought the .20 version very recently. It comes with Fiber Optic open sight which is great! The gun was loud and dieseling with the first few shots. After around 100 shots it feels much smoother and stops dieseling. It is now shooting with great consistency.

The feel of this pistol is impressive. The balance is a bit nose heavy but then so in the 1911. I loved the feel of the action, the smoothness of the trigger and even the recoil helps me become a better shooter. My gun is a .20 calibre.

Lock tight on the safety? I might recommend it at a later date. Extend the required 30 day registration for the warranty. The warranty choices were a bit confusing and I am not sure what I will choose. Keep the warranty siple please. I am a shooter, not a bright man.

Right out of the box, I couldnot hit anything. I burned through a pack of 200 pellets within the first three hours of fun to get the gun broken in. There was not any form of accuracy at all and there were numerous sight adjustments during this process. When I was getting in the zone the sights would have to be totally re adjusted again and again, either I am a poor shooter or the gun needs a good break in period. I found the gun a pleasure to shoot, burning through 1500 rounds in three days and looking forward to the next day when I could shoot again, the hours went by like minutes. Using a bench rest would only throw off my accuracy as the recoil happens well before the pellet leaves the barrel. Single handed shooting is improving and I am able to now group quarter size groups at 30 feet.
I ordered the Pel Set tool to set the pellets and the accuracy has improved since I began using this consistantly.
The safety has worked itself loose numerous times in my first 1500 rounds and I notice that the "O" ring seal has a good size cut or abrasion on it, they do provide an extra seal with the new gun, no instructions on how to replace that but it appears to be simple.
If you like to shoot and are patient enough to get the new pistol settled in and you get use to the feel of the recoil, this will be a 'go to' gun for fun and I am planning on getting good enough to be a tack driver with this one. Fun Fun Fun. This piece of hardware is very addictive. If you go out in the field, take some perfect fitting allen keys in case any tightening is needed especially for the safety that I am prone to automatically apply.
This just feels right in your hand. I do not know what perfection is as I have not shot enough air pistols but I am pretty excited about this one and can not wait to get home each day to shoot it.

The two-stage trigger is superb. Just take up the slack in the first stage and from there just "think" your shot. That is just how light a touch the guns is with the factory setting. This gun is more accurate that the rifles I own. Yeah, I do own some not-so-good rifles but even a not-so-good rifle should outshoot a pistol.

Do not particularly like the recoil that was built into the gun since I do not use it as a trainer for a 1911. The upper receiver could be reduced to more accurately replicate a 1911.

My gun was purchased around 1985 so it is almost a quarter of a century old. It was about $300.00 at the time of purchase, making it one expensive handgun for the time. I have shot thousands of rounds through it and it does not seem to have lost any of its power. When I go shooting with my friends and relatives they know the P1 will be on my hip and will be the first and the last gun I shoot all day long. No other gun has been as much fun for me as my P1.

when i opened the box & held this in my hand, i knew where my $400+ went. nice weight to it, all metal construction - no skimping here. very nice fit & finish.

expensive but no complaints

my 10clip co2 357 is fun to shoot but it's anemic power is a minus. my single shot multi-pump 1377 has the power but pumping 10x gets old fast. this springer pistol is my go-to gun - cock it, load it, shoot it. accurate at 10m, weaver stance, full cock w/ crosman silver eagles.

The P1 is incredibly accurate. It will out-shoot a standard M1911A1 pistol at 50 feet. It has the same grip as the standard 1911A1, and is therefore a wonderful trainer. The gun has 2 power levels in .177, but not in .22. The trigger is adjustable and is light and crisp. The gun is easy to cock for the power it delivers. The build quality is excellent, but don't start taking it apart unless you know how to work on an aluminum-framed gun. It's easy to make the pin holes too large if you use the wrong drifting technique.

The adjustable sights are excellent, but the 11mm optical sight rail could be cut deeper. It doesn't grab onto dot sight bases well. Also, there needs to be a positive scope stop built into the top rail, as the front sight gets peened by serving as an ad hoc stop.

Don't use the lower power setting. Just shoot on high power or your gun will start dieseling. The velocity with RWS Hobby pellets is more in the 550-560 f.p.s. range. 600 f.p.s. is out of reach for anything except trick pellets like Raptors, and they're inaccurate.

Power! 600 fps is great! Varmints at 20 yards or less go down fast. There are no plastic parts visable, and it feels like a quality firearm.

Sight visability is terrible! Fiber optic sights would be a great improvment, and they are putting them on the P11, which is comming out shortley. However, since the front sight is not removable, you won't be able to upgrade the P1.

Any standard 1911Government Model grips will fit this pistol. I put a set of Pachmeyer Walnut, w/rubber finger groves on mine, and it greatly inproved the feel and look of the pistol.

I like the HW45 better than this... and it was cheaper than the Beeman.

Sights are terrible, almost no range of adjustability. The recoil is pretty strong, but it IS a springer, so you should expect that. Beeman should not be allowed to ruin nice airguns the way they do, just to turn a quick buck.

This is a cheap copy of the HW45, and for some reason, costs MORE than the gun it is poorly imitating (??)
Neither is a tack-driver, the accuracy of a spring-piston powered pistol (with no dampening engineering) is never going to compete with that of a pneumatic or a CO2 match pistol.
This is meant to be a fun plinker, and it is, but the HW is the REAL deal, and it is - what? - like $100 cheaper?

It shoots quite accurately for a multi-purpose airgun. The .20'' caliber has enough power for pest control at short range. It nicely imitates the firearm recoil by moving the piston towards the shooter. A good device for at-home pistol training.

Although the barrel quality is superb, the assembly quality is terrible. My P1 has three pins moving back and forth in the rear part of the gun. Two of them are so loose that they only need a finger push to put them back in place. Good on the one hand, it makes them easy to loose on the other. I have to hammer the third pin back in place every now and then. They should had been made rivets, not pins. The safety lock broke down after a week of not-so-intensive use. To call Beeman's dealing with customers Customer Service is a joke. As my P1's safety lock broke down, I first tried to fix it myself without taking the gun apart. As the safety pin fell inside the body of the gun, I brought the gun back to Beeman. They told me that my warranty was jeopardized because I had tinkered with the gun myself. They charged me for fixing the safety. The quality of their work was so poor, that a week later the safety fell apart again. I opened the gun, fixed it, and it worked OK ever since. Had Weihrauch 45 LP been on the market at the time I was looking for an airgun, I would had purchased that one instead of Beeman. It looks similar, has more power in the .22'' caliber, and hopefully it's better made.

P1 is more of a hunting and firearm-imitating airgun than an airgun made for bull's eye precision. The barrel is capable of extremely sharp shots, but the sights aren't. At 10 yards, the front site completely covers the center of the Gamo paper target I use for home practice. You can still learn to hit it, but it takes a lot of practice. However, it pays off if the firearm you use is made for close quarters shooting, like the very popular Glock. The Glock sites are made for fast target acquisition, so the front is wide and the rear is low. If you try to hit a remote target with a Glock, you sometimes have to aim at something smaller in size than your front site. That's where your P1 practice comes handy. I am not a Glock fan myself, but it's a practical gun nevertheless, especially for self-defense.