Well I finally broke down and... Edit

Purchased an HW44. Even though I had a Crosman that would shoot as well but way more shots I still could not resist the addictions constantly whispering in my ear "you need it". When cocking it catches a bit here and there and is a bit fiddly with the magazine insertion and removal. Still other than those two slight shortcomings it is a very nice gun. I expect things will smooth out a bit as they wear in. Bought it out of the classified section and although not technically new it has very few rounds through it. Put my Redfield 4x32 on it as the batteries in my holosight were dead. Don't like the scope all that well so will be looking for another that will focus at a closer distance. It shoots them through the same hole at ten meters with some unknown pellets, I found in a tin with no lid to be seen, which really doesn't say much. I was posed to go out to the range and shoot it at fifty yards but I couldn't get my slacker self out there today. So another fun toy to play with, on another day, when I am not trying to make the slackers look like over achievers. ;^)



It is not a replacement for this but in every way but shot count it is it's equal straight from the factory.




 
If the gun is as new as you are saying then the reg probably needs some time to break in too. It's a slow break in on the HW regs, but it'll really smooth out after ~1,000 shots. 

The magazine insertion and cocking have never really smoothed out for me much, it's still a bit of jerky move. Once you figure out how to insert the magazine just right it gets easier. Just don't try to jam one in backwards - it's really hard to get back out - ask me how I know...... :p. The one thing I will say is that the indexing mechanism is very smooth and accurate.

I really prefer airguns with rotary magazines like this instead of the spring loaded self-indexing kind. You never have to worry about the magazine or probe damaging the pellets.