Page 5 of 7 - Beeman P3 Reviews

It has a great feel, is accurate and has a really good trigger.

The sights and grips are really good, but a finer front sight and target grips put this gun over the top.

I bought this pistol to work on my pistol craft without using up my dwindling supply of non-replaceable rim-fire ammunition. This gun fills that need. It shoots well, the trigger is light but crisp and the gun has a good size and heft to it. The gun is well made. It is not really hard to cock or load, and I usually shoot it for a couple of hours at a time. I think it will be going strong when my grandson inherits it, hopefully a long time from now.

The accuracy is pretty amazing. The trigger, light and smooth. The 410 fps rating is sufficient for target or game IMO. I'm a 1-pump airgun shooter so I like that and have never considered any other type. The fiber optic sights are superior on any pistol and they are on this one too.

It doesn't need changing but be careful cocking it - keep your cocking hand flat to keep the action from getting some of your skin. I've read some don't like the safety on the left side and I disagree - it's in the perfect place to take off with my weak-hand thumb...which is where I put my thumb when I shoot anyway.

When I ordered the P3 it was on back order so I also ordered the P17 and got it about a month before I got the P3. Appearance and functionally they are really close to the same. The biggest difference that I noticed is that the safety is easier to set off on the P17 - the P3 takes a little more force and a "click" which may be a good thing. Other than that, both pistols are quite good so far. The P3 is German-built and the P17 is a Chinese copy, but a decent one as far as I can tell for the person on a budget - $240 vs. $40 is a big deal. Common sense tells me that the P3 is superior - we'll see how the P17 holds up but so far it's doing the job.

Accuracy wise it was just super. It will happily put 5 rounds in a group the size of a nickel, and probably better. Notice I said it will, not "I can". Right now my goal is just putting all 5 in the black. It is surprising how much harder it is for me to see the front sight indoors as opposed to outside in the sunshine. The pellets I ordered are Crosman premier light. They are $26 dollars for 1250. If you order three boxes the fourth is free. There are cheaper pellets, but with with cost of .22 LR these days what the heck? I am frankly kind of fired up about my new pistol. It looks like it will give me good feedback on my trigger control and sight picture. And, I can practice in the comfort of my home rain or shine.

It does take a little time to load, but that's probably a good thing, as it made me slow down rather than just plink away. The trigger doesn't reset after you break the shot, so that's kind of a bummer.

I recently ordered a Beeman P3 air pistol. A retired Fish and Wildlife officer friend of mine had brought me a stack of old Shotgun News magazines. The articles by Tom Gaylord had got me thinking about an air pistol that I could shoot indoors. Tom is in the employ of an outfit called Pyramyd Air. I understand that the P17 is a Chinese made copy of the P3 and a bargain to boot. That's all well and good, but frankly I was willing to pay more for the P3, as it is made by Weihrauch in Germany. Besides that, Pyramyd Air was sold out of P17's. 8)
I set up a 10 meter "range" in a upstairs hall using a wooden target holder with a putty backstop. I placed the target on an old milkcrate and set a piece of scrap blandex against the wall, just in case. In the target holder I placed a sheet of 10 meter air rifle targets.
What a hoot! The P3 is a fun little pistol. It seems to be modeled after some generic polymer pistol.
To fire it you pull the "hammer" back to release the "slide". The slide hinges at the muzzle, and after levering it forward you can place a .177 cal pellet in the breech end of the barrel. Then after pressing the slide back down you can fire the pistol. There is a safety above the trigger that is applied automatically. The pistol comes with fiber optic adjustable sights. I blacked out the rear fiber dots. It was difficult for me to focus on the front sight with all those dots shining at me. The trigger is quite good. Two stage and it broke at 1 pound and 6 ounces on my Lyman trigger scale.

Accuracy, accuracy, and more accuracy: Thanks to top quality construction and a phenomenal trigger this little pistol shoots groups that fit under a dime. If I fire five shots, at least two of them are going through the same hole and the rest are touching or very close. I estimate that this pistol is more accurate than I am… and, I am the author of the book rexGun. She’s a shooter! In the era of polymer weaponry this little air pistol is a joy. Yes, it is made (externally) entirely of ultra-modern high-tech polymers. That keeps weight to a minimum and also means that the external of the pistol can be handled frequently without concern of rust or corrosion. All internals are solid and metal.

These Beeman pistols are long since out of production (to my knowledge) and as such they come with old seals. Put a new breach seal in upon purchase and you will not be disappointed with this pistol.

The P3 and the P17 are not comparable: The P3 is a superb piece of German shooting excellence while the P17 is… Not!

Beeman Kodiak pellets are great for this pistol. My accuracy results are using copper plated Kodiak pellets.

I’ve just received the pistol, tried it, and want to share my first impression. Very nice pistol for average and large hand. I read a lot of complains that it’s hard to cock and load, but in my opinion cocking is easy enough (at least for average male) and loading pellets is not an issue at all. The pistol feels very comfortable in hand, shoots precisely right from the box. Trigger is next to perfect – you feel it, but it doesn’t require any sufficient force to overcome before a shoot. Very good bright fiber optics front and rear sights, clearly seen even without bright lighting. It looks like the pistol is powerful enough for 10m target shooting, although the pellets don’t dive into a wooden bar (I was shooting it from 5m).

Maybe it’s just my first excitement, but I don’t see anything I don’t like with the pistol. OK, I wouldn’t argue if it was more powerful, but for this size it doesn’t seem to be possible to do.

The pistol is for target shooting, it might be not strong enough to kill even a mouse.

Solid construction. The plastic parts are very well made, using solid material. The pistol is put together very well. I like the single-stroke feature because it will never run out of CO2 or compressed air. It also does not have spring fatigue or the recoil associated with a spring gun. Also, the P3 can be dry fired with or without air compressed. This feature is great for trigger control practice. Interestingly, this means the P3 can be (ab)used for bug control, shooting cleaning pellets. A spring gun cannot shoot cleaning pellets because they are too light, and the piston will smash too hard onto the cylinder's stop, causing damage. The built-in front and rear sights are a pleasure to use, they are, in a way, better than the ones on my IZH-46M! The cocking effort is okay for me, not too hard. Automatic safety is a good feature, too (the IZH-46M has no safety).

Not much. The pistol is pretty loud for its level of power. Just the hammer/valve mechanical sound may be louder than my IZH-46M with an air stripper.

Compared to the IZH-46M, the P3 is harder to cock and louder. The muzzle energy of the P3 is also weaker. The P3 is quite accurate if I do my part. Compared to the IZH-46M, the P3 is also much more compact. The grip of the P3 is just about right for my medium-sized hands, whereas the IZH-46M requires a bit of customization to make the grip fit.

The P3 makes a great pistol for indoor and shorter range shooting using the built-in sights. It does have a dovetail rail for mounting a sight, but a scope ruins the shape of the P3. The limited muzzle energy of the pistol also means a pistol scope with a parallax spec of 50 yards won't improve accuracy that much over that of the iron sights.

the trigger is nice, and the accuracy is unmatched for the money!

nothing, this gun is amazing!

i'v tried a couple of different pellets, i shot a 1/2 in group at 10m with jbs exact daioblo 8,44gr, 7.0gr rws waddcutters shoot about the same. this guun will shoot just about anything u feed it. i would buy it agian and again!

excellent sights,trigger,accuracy

This airgun is hard to cock and load.

You need small fingers to load this airgun and strong hands and arms to cock this beast. Just watch the video and you will see. I loved the accuracy and trigger.

Accurate-very accurate of r a pistol.

cut out the rear of slide so inserting a pellet would be easier-make it easier to pump, very hard to close

very accurate-slow to load-very hard to close.

Light-weight , grip is just about ergonomically perfect , nice sights , amazing trigger , and outstanding accuracy !

I would have liked to see the barrel extend to the end of the gun for cleaning purposes since you can't get a rod into the other end , but this is solved by using a flexible pull-through system instead. I would have made the overlever and it's hinge joint a little beefier - if roughly treated it is at risk for damage.

Left sided safety only [ not a problem for me ] and some have complained about lack of room to load pellets at the breech end.
Doing a "rolling lay-up" with your finger solves this problem [ I too have beefy fingers ] - just lay the pellet on it's waist and "roll it" in there.
This gun likes RWS 7gr hollow-points - they roll in smooth as butter.
For the money , you cannot beat the P-3. It is easy to shoot , very accurate , and can be "dry-fired" as well.
I highly recommend this gun !