Beginner Springer?

#1 Get a good scope and good mounts. Don't go with cheap mounts. I find the a scope with EFR helps with higher power springers. 
#2 Try different pellets until you find the most accurate one.
#3 There are only 2 ways to get a springer less hold sensitive. The first is tune the gun, which will help, and the second is get one with less power. 

well like we always say around here... the HW30s is a great place to start.

1baddart that gun is powerful. Maybe try a heavier pellet. Get a strong one piece scope mount that locks it down tight. Use some loctite on all your screws including the stock. But if you want another gun,then like deja said the hw30, R9 or one of my favorite lower priced quality guns is the RWS 34. It is plain jane but is a easy to shoot accurate gun.

The Crosman Optimus .22 I bought my son is some 1 1/2 pounds lighter than my Hatsan Striker 1000x .22. And yet has the same power range. The heft of the rifle with scope isn't bad at all. A handsome rifle that makes me think of a springer version of the Crosman variant 3 160 Pellgun. It also had the best adjustable trigger ever. But the optimus seems to fit what you're looking for, at a cost (to me) of $101.68 on Amazon. Came with cheap rings and a Centerpoint 4x32 scope I swapped for a Hammer's mount and the 3-9x32 off the Winchester 1400cs. I'm surprised it fits him as well, since he's 6' 2", 267lbs!

​And my Hatsan Striker 1000x .22 with Hammers 3-9x32AO mildot scope;

I have a gilmore red dot that my 48 has not killed yet . But I would suggest the HW30s .177 or the HW85 .22 from kral https://www.krale-schietsport.nl/en/guns/air-rifles.html?manufacturer=262

R-7 or such comes to mind. 
I used a tuned - with a full JM low power kit, 14fpe in .177 - and the tune changed everything! A tuned 48/52/54 can be an excellent rifle. Being able to take brain shots instead of head shots on squirrels helped it a lot and with a better shooter it could have won any match.

I am not a springer person - cant cock them anymore- but still own an RWS92 .177 705fps w/8.4g and one hole up close.

The RWS34 is another very good springer and I have seen one take literally hundreds of squirrels and I have seen them used in FT ( not all that bmany 48's in FT).


John

Like @Deja mentioned, an HW30S is absolutely great to start with! If you have a bit more money to spend, I would seriously suggest a HW77. No, not the HW97, because that thing doesn't have open sights. And believe me, shooting open sights is not only extremely fun, it also helps you improve your skills as a shooter. And if you want to mount a scope on it, you can do that also. I put a low-profile picatinny rail on my HW77 and put quick-detatch mounts on my scope, so I can easily switch between the two.



This is the regular version of the HW77 action, but for beginners I would suggest the K (Carbine) version.