How to accurize a pellet gun?

[Die Hard Hunter]

I got a Gamo Nitro 17 pellet gun for christmas this year. It shoots a .177 pellet at 850 fps. I cant get it to shoot any better than 1 1/4 in. at 25 yards. I have shot 6 differant kinds of pellets and they all shoot identical groups. I also tried some Napier power pellet lube and that didnt help any. Is there any way I can make it shoot a little better? I did kill 3 squirrels with it yesterday and I was very impressed with its power I would just like it to be a little more accurate.

Thanks,

Die Hard

[jcn59]

Did you try (many) different brand pellets?

Also, I'm told springers need to be "held" differently than other guns.

[airgunandy]

Yes, generally speaking, springers need to be held a little differently that any other type of gun. Due to the spring and piston lunging forward when you fire it, a springer has a weird bit of reverse recoil. It is so bad on magnum springers (1000fps and over) that it can kill scopes that aren't designed to handle it.
Most of the time, a loose hold is needed. Support the forend with your off hand, but don't grip it tightly. Also a loose grip with the shooting hand. You want to let the gun recoil back and forth while still keeping it on target. This is called the "artillery" hold (think of how a howitzer or whatever recoils and moves forward back into battery).
Also you need to watch your follow through. Since even a magnum airgun does not shoot as fast as a rimfire or centerfire rifle the pellet is in the barrel for a longer time so keeping the gun on target even after letting off the trigger is a good thing to remember. It takes practice and patience.
I have a few low-powered springers (600fps) and even those require a different hold than I use on my Crosman pumpers or .22 rimfire rifles.

If you just got it, did you clean the barrel out before shooting? There is stuff in the barrel for shipping and storage that will affect accuracy.
Then again, check the crown. Maybe there is an issue there.
Gamos are known for their bad triggers. There are things that can be done to improve them though.

I had a Gamo Shadow 1000. I could shoot it fairly well for plinking, but there just wasn't any chemistry with it. I gave it to my dad (he's 66) to try. Rested, he's getting quarter-sized groups at 25 yards with it using Gamo Rocket pellets, and that's without a trigger tune.

[Dino]

Airgunandy had some great points just one more to add.
 It can take quite a few shots (100's) for a springer to break in.
 Don't give up on it, just keep shooting it and it should get better.

[mcwoodduck]

I have a GAMO 880 hunter I purchased from Cabela's after looking at moving to PA  8 to 10 years ago.
The two things I can tell you about mine is to try different pellets.  It took a lot of time and money to find out mine likes the 9.3 grain RWS target pellets.  they work well on small game too.  It also groups well with the Gamo gold bullets.
the other thing is to make sure your scope is a pellet gun scope. 
Half of my problem was the BSA rifle scope the 880 came with.  The recoil is backwards and destroyed the scope.
$70 fixed it with a Bushnell air gun scope.  For those of you out there with a BSA scope on your rifle it's fine the pellet gun would have destroyed a Leupold or Weaver rifle scope as well.  Nothing wrong with w BSA scope if you have one on your rim or center fire.  After 3 Years, you would shoot the rifle and have to wait a few seconds for the scope to pop back into focus.  It took longer and longer till it just did not go back and the picture was clear but really small.
I have tried the new GAMO gold plated projectiles and they work well go through a lot of stuff like 2 full soda cans back to back and can get good groups with them.  They are available at Wall mart.  At least it's a place to start.  Gamo also makes a 4 pack of hunter , domed, round(BB) and target that can help.  I use the round (BB) in my Drozd full auto BB gun.  Takes crows out of the sky.

[Cossack2]

Just keep shooting. Neither of my RWS's shot great until I had run several tins through them, like at least 500 shots or more. Both prefer the RWS Meistrekugel pellet for accuracy. It's a flat point target pellet but works great for hunting too. Don't oil the breech or barrel. And clean the barrel after 500 shots or so if there is lead buildup.