No horror stories here, my 580 series Mini-14 will hold 2" groups at 100 yards and I get a few that are 1.5" I'm plenty happy with this.
Its an extremely rugged, fun gun to shoot. I didn't go shopping for a match rifle anyway....I have a .308 for that.
I've got a Burris FFII 3-9x40 scope on mine and I've had no issues, probably have 1000 rounds out of it. Not one FTF or FTE, not one!