buck slayer i can sympathize with you here are my dealings with my friends new to him encore (209X50), btw i have one also and have never had a minutes trouble with it..

http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/fb.asp?m=814074&key=

btw he is now shooting 1.25-1.5 groups and is very happy with the gun, in fact t/c told him to send it back but he is so pleased with the shooting now he says he is not going to return it. also the pics of the maxi balls we ran down the tube didn't give justice of how bad they looked in person, really needed a magnified pic to show how bad they were.

best of luck, and like everyone else has mentioned contact t/c these folks seem to bend over backwards to help