I pretty much had a similar thing in that I originally was going to buy a UK made BSA lightning XL tactical after buying and not liking a TX200 MK3. Got too the shop and even though the lightning XL was there, it shot well and was everything I wanted out of a springer for hunting. I left with a HW95k.

At first it was very harsh, not too much twang but it kicked like a mule which left me with a nice cut above my eye from the scope which wasn't even that far back. So with no intention on returning or selling it so I set about home tuning it. At first opening it the spring was roughly cut with a fair bit of preload, barely any grease, no top hat and lots of rough edges. 1 month later, about £90 and its finally done as of 5 hours ago today. I've polish the internals, managed to get a Vortek kit from a guy on facebook (this was a pain in the a$$ to get working right) and had the standard piston buttoned and smoothed out.

Its now silky smooth, shooting 11.3 with FTT and getting 10p groups with hunter extremes and FTT at 30 yards unsupported. Extremely happy with it now!