HI Mate

"Maybe just check the sights are tight before looking for anything else? "

I did this as one of the first things, as the symptoms you describe are often the cause of loose sights. They are well mounted and very solid, also the bell target conversion sounds plausible, but the sight picture is not the best, a heavy vee rear, combined with a thick foresight blade, and if you look at the photos...It is zero'ed for about 40 yards

The actual owner does not shoot it much I am told, It is more of a decoration over his fireplace, and it only came to me to have a look at because someone else I know, who does shoot a bit, took it out to try a few shots in the guy's garden, and realised the stock was very loose, and it was very harsh to shoot (he has shot a couple of mine, so noticed the difference), and suggested to the owner that I could maybe give it a once over.

Maybe it is the bore...the one thing I didn't do was to check pellet engagement on the skirt (I normally shoot into cotton waste, and look for signs of rifling marks / pellet clipping etc....Altough I did try 4.54 die daystate pellets as one of the several I tried, as well as Pylarms and Wasps.