Target Pistol Project

[savantguarde]

Hi All,

I've started this thread to track progress of a project I am hoping to start soon. I've never owned an air pistol (Rifles and some airsoft in the past) and I have regained an interest with a view to owning a pistol and entering the UBC monthly 10 metre league. This is a fun project intended to always be something of a technical challenge (more on this later) as well as improving my skill. It will be a long while before my abilities neccecitate a hardware upgrade (if indeed ever).

After conducting a lot of research (so many excellent threads and discussion on this forum) I have decided on a pistol: The Daisy 717. Once setup properly it seems to be a very solid platform for begining target shooting. The looks appeal to me, I would prefer a Single stroke pneumatic and it is a popular pistol to MOD with fairly simple internals.

Finding the gun - Budget is the keyword here, as in lack of! I am in no rush and from what I have seen suitable candidates pop up from time to time. So long as the basic mechanics are present I am looking for a pistol in need of repair. Leaky broken in some fashion etc etc Something that needs some love and time devoted to it. Thats where the technical challenge comes in. I have access to decent engineering facilities and materials so as long as I dont need to fabricate entire systems, its dooable.

Obviously I could save for a period, buy a decent starter gun of which there are many but I want that ability to fiddle! and ressurecting something prevoiusly malfunctioning or damaged, then hopefully IMPROVING it to as high a standard as I can with my resources is what will be amazing fun!

First obstacle is the missus Need some carefully crafted counter arguments to this endevour.....

Anyone with any links to usefull pages they have found in the past with mods to this particular gun would be great. I have found a few but I welcome any and all input. Including acusations that I am mad

[2schimels]

My advice is this. Do not bother to buy a cheap gun to repair. I sold a Daisy 717 minter in box for £65 a couple of months ago. If you want a gun to repair, get a high quality one that is faulty or damaged selling at a greatly reduced price. After working on it you will have an excellent usable investment.Higher quality pistols are usually have better designed solid components which are interesting to make.For instance the Drulov DU 10 sometimes crop up in non working condition at reasonable prices.

Baz

[savantguarde]

noted! Ah that Daisy would have been perfect! I'll just keep my eyes peeled!

[harvey_s]

I wouldn't confine your project to just the Daisy.

The Gamo Compact comes up from time to time at your price point (I bought mine, perfect & cased for just £65 and I see that others have sold here at the same price not that long ago).
They have much better true target grips (that are worth the price of the gun on their own really), the trigger pull can be worked on to give near match quality at no cost and if you're feeling bored the velocity could also be tweaked up, but this requires quite a bit more work.

The Gamo would be my choice for a true low-budget target gun

[magicniner]

I second the Compact as a far better basis to work from than the Daisy,

- Nick