Name a decent entry level airgun in the $250- $400 airgun price range. 25 to .30 caliber

Yours probably isn’t clipping baffles. The way a moderator threads to a jet makes them more susceptible to baffle strikes than most other designs.
Now that I think about it. It was all over the place at first. I took the adapter they furnished off. I then put it back on WAY tighter than I thought it should be and it's been pellet on pellet at 60 ft using the inexpensive Apolo domed pellets. Can't speak to its accuracy past that. Frankly, I've been surprised how well it does.
 
Now that I think about it. It was all over the place at first. I took the adapter they furnished off. I then put it back on WAY tighter than I thought it should be and it's been pellet on pellet at 60 ft using the inexpensive Apolo domed pellets. Can't speak to its accuracy past that. Frankly, I've been surprised how well it does.
Mine was just like Firewalker’s, shotgun patterns at 10m. I removed the moderator and shot without it and the groups tightened way up, but talk about loud. I tried a couple other moderators and had the same awful groups, then I noticed that where the threads are near the muzzle there was a casting line that was causing the moderators to tilt out of alignment with the bore. I did the same thing as you and just overtightened it and that resolved the problem. Now I get about 2” groups at 50 yards with it. Maybe it could do better if I were to experiment with different pellets, but I don’t really care about it enough to bother. It shoots accurately enough for what it is.

Another major problem mine has is that the front and rear picatinny rails aren’t in alignment with each other, with the rear being about a millimeter lower than the front. I corrected for this by just stacking a ton of shims on my rear ring, but it’s the kind of thing that just makes me regard it as a low quality gun.
 
Hatsan flash. They have a new regulated one in that price range and they have great customer service. Here is my older version of the flash qe
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