AOA Blog

Airguns of Arizona is usually regarded as an outstanding supplier of “serious” – make that expensive and often PCP – airguns. But the company actually sells airguns of all types – including “fun pistols”

It’s such a fun pistol that we’re looking-at today. The SIG SAUER P320 M17, in fact.

SIG is unusual in that many of their CO2-powered centerfire replica air pistols are pellet-shooters. True, they do have some BB-firing models, but their specialty is pellet pistols.

SIG’s air pistols are almost all CO2-powered versions of the company’s centerfire models. That’s the case also with the P320 M17.

You see, the SIG Air P320 M17 air pistol is a remarkably realistic version of the US Army P320 M17 service pistol. Length, width, height and weight are all identical – or almost – to the centerfire original.

SIG sets high standards throughout the organization and its products. It’s clear that this is the most realistic pellet pistol that they have introduced to date. It’s thus ideally-suited for the training role that the company sees  as a key value proposition for its airgun products.

The P320 M17 air pistol features a fully-functional ambidextrous manual safety – a first for a SIG Air pistol and an exact match to the firearm.

There’s also a functioning takedown lever. Unlike previous SIG pellet pistols, the M17 can be field-stripped, which will please many people.

The drop-free magazine release is not ambidextrous. But this is a relatively small difference from the centerfire M17.

The overall appearance of the sights is very realistic. However, it’s true that that sights do not offer the night vision capability of the military firearm. Nor are they adjustable. This means that we need to be creative if your sample doesn’t shoot exactly to the point of aim.

One alternative would be to mount a small laser on the Picatinny rail and make aim corrections using that. This is a Leapers UTG LS200 Red Sub-Compact laser. As you can see, it fits onto the P320 M17 air pistol very conveniently.

Another is the the SIG M17 Pellet Pistol Reflex Sight.

This is a huge asset to the M17. It provides elevation and windage adjustment capability, combined with multi-brightness control of the projected red dot. It’s delightfully small and light and makes accurate shooting the M17 so much more enjoyable!

SIG claims that the P320 M17 air pistol is a perfect tool for M17 firearm owners to practice with and stresses the similarity to the firearm. I agree.

The manufacturer also claims a Muzzle Velocity of “up to 430 FPS” – depending on temperature and other environmental considerations. Unfortunately, the maximum FPS achieved by the P320 M17 air pistol I tested was just 310 FPS, with 5.56 Grain alloy pellets.

Now it’s true that this was recorded in a cool – 62 degree F – test range in up-state New York. It’s also true that the Muzzle Velocity for CO2-powered airguns varies by about 2 FPS per degree F temperature change.

However, even if the range temperature had been 92 degrees F in sunny Arizona, the test gun would have only achieved a maximum of 370 FPS. That’s the 310 FPS at 62 degrees + (30 degrees difference x 2 FPS) = 370 FPS.

Actually, a maximum of 370 FPS would still be a pretty good muzzle velocity for a CO2-powered air pistol. But it’s still 60 FPS short of the claim.

Is that a big deal? For most people who plan to use the P320 M17 air pistol for practice and punching holes in paper, the answer is “no”.

The P320 M17 air pistol I tested showed very good accuracy. The gun was certainly “minute of soda can” accurate at 6 Yards.

However, there was a clear tendency for the pellets to strike slightly to the right of the bull. This was not an issue at 6 Yards, however the group dropped down and to the right on the 10 yard target.

Accuracy was quite consistent with all the pellets I tried. The RWS Hobbys performed marginally best however, so these were shot at the longer, 10 yards range.

Although to pellets struck low and right at 10 yards, they were still within the “minute of soda can” – just not exactly in the right place! Overall, this was a very creditable performance and with one of the add-on sights you could easily be “spot on”.

The SIG P320 M17 air pistol offers a very realistic-feeling blowback, particularly with a new, full, CO2 cartridge. Felt recoil is surprisingly strong, another big improvement over previous SIG non-blowback pellet pistols.

One complaint is that the slide does not hold back after the last pellet has been fired. This is not unknown among CO2-powered replica firearms, however.

The trigger is double-action only and has a rather long pull. The pull weight of the test gun was rather heavy at an average of 9 Lbs 8 Oz.

Both pull weight and length are clearly related to the pellet feed mechanism. It is the trigger pull which advances the next pellet into battery for firing, rather than the slide recoil. So technically, the M17 is actually a revolver!

However, the pull itself felt consistent and predictable.

My SIG P320 M17 air pistol gave just over 60 shots before the Muzzle Velocity fell below 200 FPS. This is around average for a CO2-powered air pistol with strong blowback.

However, I kept firing and eventually achieved 80 shots before the gas was completely exhausted. That’s a very good count for a blowback air pistol, although the FPS for the final magazine’s contents was very low.

The CO2-loading system employed in the M17 is – in my opinion – the best there is at the present time.

SIG’s cam lever system is simple, easy and quick. There’s no screws to turn and no unsightly levers hanging down below the magazine. There’s no need for an Allen (hex) wrench either and no issues if that wrench were to become lost.

Incorporating the cam lever system into the magazine itself is also a significant operational improvement compared to having it located in the frame, as with some previous SIG models.

As with any replica air pistol – both BB- and pellet-firing, loading the ammo is actually the longest task of preparing the P320 M17 air pistol for shooting. But the new, 20-pellet magazine is really quite convenient to load. It also has no need for the owner to hold down a spring-loaded follower, as can become tedious with some BB pistols.

So if you’re looking for some fun plinking, or some serious training action for a centerfire P320, the SIG P320 M17 air pistol could be just what you’re looking-for.

And at $119.95, it’s not exactly going to break the bank!