Airsoft Action - January 2021

RELOADED
SIG AIR PROFORCE M17
pistol, especially in
a moment of high
stress, I am not having to think about how to
use the mag release.
The grip of the pistol has a very comfortable
recess where your thumb sits and this is
replicated on both sides. On the front of the
trigger guard is a really positive grooved section for
those who prefer to place a finger on it as they hold
the pistol in a firing grip. Further forward on the
frame of the pistol is a section of pitcatinny rail which
will enable the fitting of a large number of accessories
such as tac lights or lasers. To “field strip” the M17
it follows exactly the same action as on the live fire
version.
FIELD STRIP
Ensure the magazine is not fitted and clear the pistol
before checking the chamber for a round. Pull the
slide back until the scallop in the slide, by the rear of
the front slide serrations, lines up and enables you to
turn the take down lever. The slide then is removed
from the front of the frame. One of the most useful
and neat things I found on the ProForce M17 is that
to alter the hop up of the 6mm, lock the slide back
and turn the ‘recoil rod’ to achieve a really positive
adjustment. This saves all the hassle that some other
pistols have in that you have to either take the slide
off to adjust the hop or use a specific key, inserted
into the faux chamber to enable the adjustment.
The trigger has quite a heavy pull when you
compare it to most 6mm pistols but this again is to
give the same feel as is present on the real firearm.
There isn’t a long pull to operate the trigger to fire the
pistol and there is a really positive reset when firing a
string of shots.
One thing I think that would be really good for SIG
to produce would be a boxed set of the P320-M17
like you can get with the real firearm. This would
include one flush fit magazine which comes with
the ProForce P320-M18 and two of the extended
magazines. It is really clear that SIG have had a lot of
input and worked very closely with VFC who OEM this
replica to produce a really fantastic training tool.
On to the test range and using NP 2.0 Green Gas
and RZR .20g BBs I
loaded the magazine
and readied the pistol.
The first thing I did
was to fire a magazine
full off BBs through the
chrono at a “deliberate”
rate of fire, keeping the
pace of one, release, two,
release, three, release
until the magazine was
empty. I’d definitely say that
green gas is the best option
in the warmer months and
for indoor use NP 3.0 could
be used if you wish (at your
own risk) over winter months when the ambient
temperature is lower
Now to have some “time on target”; using the
Virtus Training Systems Aluminium target set at a
range of approx. 7m and spaced approx. 500mm
apart it was easy to move the pistol and hit each
target without missing one from a low ready start.
So to round things up, this is an all-round great
6mm pistol. From someone who loves their Glock
(VFC licensed) and other similar platforms, the M17
has really turned my head, so much so that I actually
asked to buy the one we had for test. If I were back
shooting live pistols on a regular basis then I would be
seriously considering the purchase of the 9mm P320
M17 to use for competition. I’ll never totally give up
my like of the Glock platform but the M17 I can see
being a regular feature in my holster for training and
skirmishing use.
My thanks to Frank at Fire Support for the loan of the
pistol for the test, and please do check out all they
have to offer by visiting www.fire-support.co.uk. AA
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