I benched my new Crosman Mag-Fire Mission today to get my scope zeroed and the accuracy is atrocious.
The first picture is the group with the scope at 18 yards. The ticks are 1" apart.
The second picture is the group with the scope removed and using open sights. The picture doesn't show two fliers that were completely off the paper to the right at 2 o'clock.
The 3rd picture shows the crown of the barrel where it appears that pellets may be grazing the edge of the plastic insert/crown, whatever it's called. That shouldn't be like that, should it?
Any advice?
[img]Scoped https://imgur.com/gallery/Wsvztre[/img]

[img]Open https://imgur.com/a/Zk5e5jJ[/img]
[img]Crown https://imgur.com/a/tjpkdZW[/img]

Piston or spring air guns need 2 - 300 pellets fired through them to break in and settle down.

Shoot a tin or two of cheap pellets and then give the bench a go.
You will most likely have to try several different brands and weights of pellets to see what your crosman likes.

Good luck

That photo of the muzzle weight certainly shows a lead streak that shouldn't be there. Looks like the pellets aren't going straight through the target but hard to tell since that paper tends to tear.

If the weight isn't loose it may be off-centre.

Do gas-piston guns act like regular springers? Is the artillery hold still required? Do they eat non-springer-rated scopes?

Settle down from a 12" "group", if you can call it that?

That's what I was thinking. And yes, it seems to me that some of the pellets struck a bit off-kilter.

I will send it back to the place I ordered it from. (Pyramyd Air)

Gas piston and springer both benefit from the artillery hold to accommodate their unique recoil characteristics. Airgun scopes that work on spring vs nitro piston are largely interchangeable, though springers have a reputation for being particularly hard on scopes. Not sure if any harder than gas piston, though. It's firearm scopes that'll get damaged, by spring or piston.

Definitely clipping and could be keeping some pellets from stabilizing .

I sent the rifle back to where I purchased it from and they sent a replacement. The replacement required the rear sight to be dialed all the way to its extreme left side in order to zero, so I sent it back also. So, in my opinion, the Crosman Mag-Fire Mission = P.O.S.

I'm now again looking for a nice repeating gas piston or PCP air rifle.

If you want a nice accurate PCP, the Benjamin Maurader will fill the bill and not break the bank. Much quieter than a springer to.

I've never seen one or held one, but I hear that they are a "tank" and quite heavy and unwieldy for toting around.

That lead smear on the ID of the shroud should not be there. Send it back.

It went back. And the replacement they sent me was a POS too - had to move windage all the way to the extreme side in order to get it zeroed. It went back also.

Buy the Marauder! I have one in .25, pretty costly to start out-gun+pump+scope, but the accuracy is outstanding. At 25 yards groups are sub 1/4"-you can stand up .22 lr brass and hit every time at 25 and probably 80% at 50 yards depending on the wind.

Do the Marauder! Be Well, RZ.