Thanks for the info, all, especially the link to the library. I studied the info about shooting springers in there several times, and have shot about 500 times or so through my B26. My groups have continually gotten worse, until last night.
I'm a little bit of a tinkerer, but have been a little nervous about messing with the gun since I know nothing about it. However, the barrel pivot seemed very loose (I could move the barrel side to side noticeably). I finally tightened up the pivot screws last night, figuring I could always loosen them up the same amout of turns. My groups improved immensely, so I checked for further "loose" screws. The next one, and probably the one that had the most impact, was the screw that holds on the rear sight was loose. Again, after tightening the screw, my groups improved significantly.
My last 6 shots were in the black on a 50 ft. smallbore rifle target that I was shooting at from about 35 feet in the offhand position (no shooting jacket or glove.) Felt pretty stupid about the loose screws and not checking them sooner.
Is screws loosening up a common thing on springers? Do I need to plan to check them every so many shots?
Thanks, Neil