I'm not a seasoned CAS pro as I've only shot in four matches so far, but I know guns & shooting and here are my thoughts.
The Baikal Bounty Hunter II is a good solid SxS, and doesn't cost much; Less than the Stoeger and half that of the KBI Liberty, but benefits from a little tuning up. I paid $229 for a new one only a couple months ago. I reshaped the cocking levers so that it comes to full-cock when the action is almost completely open, rather than half open. In its original form, the springs are "over-cocked" and the action tends to want to return to the half open position if you're not careful. Others have taken a small grinding wheel or cut-off wheel on a Dremel and made a small detent in the cocking levers at the full open position to accomplish the same end. Another thing with mine was the top snap lever (the lever that you push to the side to break the action) was very stiff, so I took the action apart and cut one coil off the top snap return spring. The chambers were already very nicely polished, but I touched them up with some oiled 1200 grit on a split dowel in a drill anyway. My Rossi hammer coach gun actually needed a little work with a fine brake hone before going to 600 grit and on to 1200 grit. Using Winchester AA's or Remington STS's, the fired hulls drop right out of either one now by just tipping the barrels up a little and giving a little jerk to the rear.
Both my lever guns are M92's, and have worked fine with the exception of the time I ran up to my .45 Rossi, picked it up, levered it open, and the first round decided to skip the chambering protocol and went flying out the top of the action, leaving me with nine rounds and ten targets. I've heard it's a fairly common problem with 92's.
The .44-40 is a good cartridge, but a little extra care is required when reloading it. Bullet seating and crimping must be done in seperate operations due to the very thin case wall, and it's very easy to crush the case mouth if it hits the mouth of a die. It buckles and crushes almost before you can feel it.
At the close ranges used in CAS, my revolvers have 4 5/8" barrels which clear the leather a tad faster and are easier to point and aquire a sight picture.
That alias thing is tough alright... my brand is Jbar4 and one of my daughters came up with J. Bar Binks after the character Ja-Ja Binks in "Star Wars - The Phantom Menace". It sounded good to me, so I became J. Bar Binks.
