There's a lot of controversy regarding barrel break-in for precision rifles. For a .44 Mag, I really don't see it being necessary, as it's not a precision rifle. You're talking about a brush rifle that doesn't need or produce sub-MOA accuracy. Seems like a barrel break-in is just wasted time and eff...

For standard scopes, Cabela's is really the only choice in the Metro. No one else really has a decent selection of hunting or target optics anymore.

I have M1As and ARs. ARs are the way to go for competition. M1As are great rifles and are fantastically reliable. They are also very heavy, bulky in size, and are slow to reload when you compare them to an AR. For competition, time is of the essence, and magazine changes on an M1A are usually 1.5x-2...