Posted: 4/10/2026 3:03:28 AM EDT
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I got to shoot one and here are some observations. P17 is designed to be inexpensive to make, very light weight and function reliably. Build quality looked good to me. I loaded 15 rds of Mini Mag HPs into each of the three magazines and it fired all with no problems. Then I repeated this with Remington Thunder Bolts, same result, no malfunctions. Both were with a suppressor. Next I shot 10 rounds of RTBs without the suppressor, no malfunctions. Magazines are not so much fun to load, the spring is pretty strong. Because the P17 is very light, it is very snappy to shoot compared to something like a Mark IV. That is expected. Using a suppressor there is noticeable blowback of powder residue. A suppressor adapter screws on to the barrel and then the suppressor screws on to the adapter. I prefer the suppressor to screw directly on to the barrel. You can't remove the slide when the suppressor adapter is mounted, it is better to exchange it for the non suppressor adapter before removing the slide. Without any adapter the slide spring is not captured when the slide is removed. Cleaning is pretty easy. The magazine release is easy to use but is unlikely to drop the magazine by accident. The safety is easy to sweep off. Trigger pull is very nice and so are the sights. Why is this simple 22LR pistol reliable? The slide runs very freely, it has a bushing around the barrel and runs on two tabs at the back, tabs like Glock uses sort of. Hammer strike is strong, there were no light firing spring problems. Magazines are robust and stiff polymer. The magazine spring is close to the center of the follower, this prevents binding from follower rocking. The magazine spring is relatively stiff and seems to have little friction too. Magazine angle prevents rim lock and there is very little fore-aft play for the cartridges. I probably couldn't cause rim lock if I wanted to. The magazine catch ledge has a lot of area, making it very effective. Top of the magazine is high placed, cartridges don't have much angle to navigate during feeding. After firing and during cycling, the breech is open on both sides, the slide face and breech end of the barrel don't trap much fouling, nope, it is blown out to the sides and backward too. Fouling under the rim can't cushion the firing pin strike. Accuracy? Don't know, my shooting is mostly fast double and triple taps. The P17 does well for this use. But, it doesn't have much inertia to dampen movements. It does have light weight so it is easy to carry and present. Cleaning is fairly easy, except for running a brush through the barrel from the rear, because the hammer causes some interference. A big plus: using a two hand grip, a thumb can't drag on the slide and prevent functioning. Sadly, my trigger finger doesn't get along well with the trigger (same as on a Ruger 9mm I once tried, not a P-89 or RXM). Mini Mag HPs and Rem Thunder Bolts seemed to be subsonic, I didn't use a chrono though. Well, that's what I noticed. |
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Mine has been super reliable. Accuracy is so so To me feels a little goofy in had. Mags are great. Trigger is great. The adapter always wants to walk off under fire. So you have to constantly re tighten. All in all probably wouldn’t buy it again if I had to do it over. |
| My friends sister who has bad arthritis wanted something she could shoot and occasionally carry in .22. She picked up a P17 and we had some feeding issues. Turned out to be a sharp chamber face and after about 1 minute with an abrasive coneI had it running 100% Trigger is fantastic out of the box for a plastic pistol and accuracy is very serviceable. I was pleased enough with it that I bought one for myself to use primarily as a suppressor host for pest control purposes. These are available under $200 on a pretty regular basis and are a good buy in my opinion. Magazine loading is a bit unfriendly, but I picked up a cheap plastic loading tool off ebay which should help, but I haven't tried it yet. It does feel very light in the hand, even with a full magazine, which would seem to make it a great hiking/camping companion. |
| Same here OP. Eats everything i have fed it..my buckmark is the same way. 400ish rds and nary a hiccup, that pretty impressive for a .22. I found a cheap light that works great and is rechargeable, fits in a cheap corduroy? blackhawk holster someone left in my work van. I carry the stupid thing around tucked at 4 o'clock. My tx22 is much more accurate. |
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Like mine, had it about 4-5 years. At $200 it's really hard to beat. I'd say it's accurate enough. It's my preferred field pistol. I've never had failure with it Attached File |
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I bought one a few years back on a good sale, $159. It has been a great gun functioning well and being plenty accurate for a non target pistol. Ended up getting a second one for $175 because I liked the first so much. They have been good lightweight pistols for plinking and small game hunting. I have noticed 2 versions of magazine springs, older have flat springs, newer have round springs. They all have worked but the flat springs seem easier and smoother to load. |
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I actually prefer mine over my 2nd gen TX22. When suppressed and with an optic mounted, the front lens of my optic is coated with carbon and powder very quickly with the TX after just a few mags due to the open top of the slide. I actually bought the optic ready slide for my P17 with the Viridian green dot off the Keltec site and installed it on my P17 so I could shoot it with an optic. It runs flawlessly and doesn't "foul" the optic with burned powder. Great little gun. It's pretty much a tie between the 1st gen TX22 I have with a lakeline optic slide and my P17 with the Keltec optic slide, my 2nd gen TX22 "TORO" frustrates me to no end. |
| Mine has not been very reliable, but I have not gone through it to polish anything so I'm not surprised. I have a red dot mounted on it and it's as accurate as I am, for the most part. I would like to get a can for it eventually. |
"Do what you do, just do it less shittily." Ben "The Realest" Stoeger