Huck,
For $1000 you actually have quite a few choices, but I will only talk about two.
If your $1000 needs to cover the cost of both the gun and scope, I'd suggest you look at a Benjerman Maurada. It's available in .177, .22 & .25 cal. and straight from the box will give pretty good accuracy. I've shot against a few at matches and have been moderately impressed. But, there was one in particular in .22 that had been totally gone through that was a record setting gun in the 20fpe HV Class. But, as I said, that gun had been totally gone through.
If it weren't for the .22/.25 request, a great gun straight from the box that falls within the $1000 range for the gun alone is the Air Arms S400 MPR-FT. It's a 12fpe LV Class gun, but straight from the box once matched with the right pellets will give the best custom guns a run for their money, and sometimes will leave even those much higher priced guns eating dust. I have one as does Paul Bendix, and both have shot a multitude of 250's with excellent X-counts. But, as I said, it only is available in .177 cal.
Good luck with your decision.
Dave Shattuck
