Phenomenal air pistol, taken for granted

Last year my souped-up 1701P developed a leak, but being a hopeless procrastinator I didn't dive into her until last night. The simplest-designed and easiest airgun I've ever worked on, it was the fastest reseal I've ever done.

Since the exhaust valve was in good shape, my Harbor Freight o-ring kit contained all the seals required. The reseal took less than 30 minutes; most of that spent degreasing parts. 

Unfortunately my homegrown 'B Staley tune' was out of tune. No surprise there; after all, we're talking about an airgun

Having recently had good results upgrading another B Staley tuned airgun by replacing the rubber o-rings with softer foam-rubber flat seals, that's what got me (back) where I wanted to go. And although my shot-count fell by two, I gained 2/10 foot-pound of muzzle energy. The 20 shot power-band with 10.34 JSB Heavies from a 2500 PSI fill was- Low= 647, High= 676, ES= 29, SD= 8.6, Average= 663 FPS/10.1 foot-pounds. JSB 8.4 grain Exacts will go 720-725 FPS and a just as accurate, but return 4 fewer shots per fill.

I decided to install a 2,5-8X pistol scope instead of the usual 3X, to better reaffirm the 1701's tack-driving accuracy. To my surprise, from the very first shot it was zeroed exactly as I wanted, about 1/2" low at 35 yards. And despite very gusty crosswinds, the ten-shot group at 35 yards could be covered with a quarter.

The reseal job reminds me how well-done the 1701 is, and what a joy to work on. Shooting her again not only reaffirms the uncanny accuracy, but what a bone-head I am to take the 1701 for granted. These are phenomenal air pistols. Mine-

1701 New.1646025157.JPG





 
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Preach it brother! 


They indeed phenomenal and very under rated! They are so good I bought 2, just so accurate! I didn’t even bother with any power mods, adjusted HS a little and I have taken headshots on house sparrows out to 34 yards with 5.6 grain H&N alloy pellets flying at 500fps even. I don’t even bother with validating POI on them at all, I just make sure the needle is in the zone and shoot. so good it’s nutty! If the pellet isn’t on top of the last pellet at 20 yards or the holes aren’t touching at 30 yards it’s completely my fault. 


The pistol version is my close quarter rat gun and hand gun practice once a while. The carbine just dominates when it comes to house sparrows and starlings, it just doesn’t miss. 
 
I know @AirNGasman has far more than I, but I have a Burris long eye relief 1.25-4x20, a Center point long eye relief 2x20, a Riton red dot, and a handful of other inferior red dot sights. Fort the money, for a red dot, the riton 2moa is phenomenal even for me and my astigmatism.



As for the 1701P, I'm not sure if it is underrated so much as it is over-looked. The Lothar Walther barrel paired with that trigger group is a winning combo. 
 
The scope in my original post is a Burris Mini 6X rifle scope I mounted for accuracy testing, but my 1701P usually wears a Thompson Center 3X pistol scope for good offhand work to 30-40 yards. Sorry, I don't have a photo of the 1701 with the T/C 3X. 

The scope alluded to in my post above is a 2.5-8X Crimson Trace pistol scope. I didn't have a photo of it on the gun until a few minutes ago, so just solved that-

CT 1701P.1646065486.jpg


I'm often a "form over function" type guy, and to my eyes the CT scope looks a bit ass-end heavy on the 1701. I'll probably switch back to the T/C 3X soon anyway.

Because guns are beautiful, pistols especially, I often play musical chairs with different scope/gun combinations before finding the right silver-slipper fit. However, any given gun's wardrobe often varies to fit the given purpose/application du jour. And as LGD observes, I keep a wide optics wardrobe on hand to keep my extensive pistol collection well-dressed for any occasion. ;-)




 
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I'm no o-ring expert, E. But I'll speculate as o-rings go, Harbor Freight's ain't 'zactly top quality. In fact, it takes little more than a glance to confirm that, to such degree that I often pick out the least unimpressive of several identically sized ones. Nevertheless, I've not had any problems with them.

I'd describe them as quantity(s) over quality. But between the HF metric and SAE o-ring assortments, I seldom don't have whatever size I need. Yes, I'd describe them as good to have in a pinch.

And... they're CHEAP!