benjamin crosman eb17 co2 pistol review

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Picture courtesy of Bertie.

Average Ratings

Value for Money	8.8/10
Reviewer Rating	8.6/10
Overall Rating	8.8/10

88% Recommended7 out of 8 Reviews

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By Doolie on 1st Feb 2006

Doolie's Ratings

Value for money	8/10
Overall value	8/10
Doolie's recommendation

Good Points

Accurate, reliable

Bad Points

Some users like me may find the grip ackward

General Comments

Although this article appears under the heading of the Crosman EB17 I will be talking about the Crosman EB9a pistol. I suspect that the difference between the EB9a series and the EB17 is the name only. Perhaps Crosman will correct me if I am incorrect!.

I have had my EB9a for a little over a year. At that time I paid £83. for it. The best price that I have seen for this pistol recently is £109. (Airsport Direct in the UK).

I would describe this pistol as an entry point target pistol. I personally would not use this for anything other than target shooting.

The muzzle velocity appears to be good. As I do not have any accurate way of measuring the muzzle velocity I cannot give any reading, that would really mean anything of any value.

The EB9a is a single shot - bolt action - CO2 pistol.
The loading of the CO2 cartridge is straight forward and is acheived by unscrewing a face cover at the front end of the pistol, immediately under the barrell. I use the Crosman 12 gramme cartridge to which I apply a little silicon based grease to cover the neck end of the gas cartridge. This helps to seal the cartidge to the Co2 gas entry point of the pistol. It may do something to also lengthen the life of the rubber seal. I do not bother to shoot anymore then 40 pellets per gas cartridge. The power loss after 40 is to great to maintain pellet velocity, therefore accuracy.

Loading the pellet is straight forward and simple. Using the bolt to assist pellet entry into the breech end of the barrel is also straight forward. A half turn of the bolt secures the bolt into position. However, after a little use I found the the bolt tends to turn to the open position after firing. This is easy to correct. Using a correct size screwdriver and undoing two small securing screws to the left hand side of the pistol. It is easy the reset the covering plate which in turn secures the bolt as well. Do not overtighten the securing screws when doing them up again. Use a correct size screw driver, or you may find the your bur over the edges of these little screws.

Maintenance is easy and requires a VERY small amount of a quality pistol oil placed into the barrel end and allowed to travel down through the rifling of the barrel, somewhere in the region of 200 pellet discharges. About every 200 rounds carefully run a quality .177 inch calibre cleaning rod down the barrell, just to remove any build up that may be there. I suggest using the same pistol oil and a suitable cloth place a light covering over the other parts of the pistol.

Sight acquisition I found suits me very well. Maintaining the sight picture I found easy. However what suits me may not suit others. The rear site will permit both changes to elevation and windage. Although I found that the amount of windage that may be applied is somewhat limited. The way I resolved this was to unscrew the rear sight and using a correct sized file I elongated the hole that allows the windage change. This is someting that needs to be done with care and the right type of small fine toothed file. Do not rush this and be careful to maintain the right size hole.
When I did this it allowed me to zero myself onto the centre of the target. At 6 metres (indoor Range) I usually shoot a 90 + on the competative target. To what effect doing this may invalidate a warranty I do not know?

Now for the grips. Sadly in my case I had a bit of a problem. I do not think that I have small hands, but to get the correct grip on this pistol and at the same time have my firing finger properly positioned on the trigger was very difficult. If you are a serious target shooter, this is clearly a problem as it will not permit you to release the shot as it should be done. In an effort to overcome this I looked very carefully at the way my right hand moulded to the grip and trigger. I quickly discovered that the problem was two-fold. First the distance between the rear of the pistol grip and the trigger was greater than my hand. The second part was my grip was being interfered with by the design of the two wooden grip plates. These wooden 'grips' are clearly machine produced to a very basic design. But, by taking a piece of glasspaper, and carefully, and I do mean carefully, sanding the right-hand side of the wooden grip I created a small channel like indentation for my right finger. This took time as I know that this only works if you do a little bit, put in back on the pistol and see how it works. If not then you repeat the process. It took me several hours to do this to get the best result that I was likely to get. Whilst I was about it I also rubbed down all the other grip edges to make a much smoother feel. When I was satisfied with the end result I then used a hard wax furniture stick the reseal the opened wood grain. And applied a little elbow grease to bring it to a dull shine. I found that this also makes the wooden grips 'grip' better. It has slightly improved the handling of the pistol, but I still have a issue with finger/trigger control.

As a entry level target pistol this is OK. Like all pistols of this nature it benefits from a little TLC. I have no reasson to suspect that it will not give me good service and a good life span. The mechanics of it are straight forward, so my expectations are realistic.

I am happy with it.

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