This is the rifle to work with. There's all kinds of stuff that can be done to improve it for competition but all I did was a little smoothing and backed the spring tension screws off a little. If one so desired, a "short stroke" lever kit could be added to speed things along but I'm not good enough to warrant such an extensive overhaul. Like the Yellowboy, this saddle ring carbine got that barrel band with the brass bead in the sight. For some reason I left the lacquer on the wood and only added the leather butt cover. A true American beauty.