Well, I've used it for a couple of cowboy shoots and have discovered a few things about this rifle.
First and foremost is if one is looking for speed and a rifle for serious competition, get a Winchester 73'. The Burgess is a nice rifle, but does not easily lend itself to speed shooting. I also had a correctable issue with the rifle when it was new that had a domino effect on the overall functioning of the rifle.
The issue was friction against the hammer causing light firing pin strikes and subsequent misfires. I also had a problem with misfeeds and jamming.
I contacted the store from where the rifle came and received a UPS mailing lable to return the rifle. This company has a resident gunsmith who BTW, jumped right in to fixing my rifle and returned it to me within a couple of days (great service). The gunsmith relieved some of the friction on the hammer and then polished it and rouged it. He also adjusted the hammer spring. He then ran two full magazines through the rifle to test it for function. When I received the repaired rifle, I could visibly note a faster hammer fall. I took the rifle out the same day and ran 50 rounds of mixed brand 45 Colt through it with nary a hiccup (or misfire). The primers revealed good, solid firing pin strikes.
It turns out that the Colt Burgess Rifle does not extract unfired cartridges well (like the Spencer rifle) due to its inherent design. When I was having misfires due to light firing pin strikes, the unfired cartridge would be extracted from the chamber, but not ejected. It would interfere with the cartridge coming up in the carrier and cause a jam. Once the misfire problem was fixed, all the following problems were eliminated.
I also found that if one works the lever hard enough, one can "flip" a live cartridge off of the carrier and out of the rifle. The rifle is better suited to the heavier 250 grain bullets in 45 Colt although the 50 rounds I shot yesterday were 200 grainers.
Overall the action may be operated relatively fast, but a good experienced shooter may out run the action and have a jam or thrown cartridge.
I don't plan to be a super serious competitor so the Burgess works well for me. If I were to become very serious about competing in CAS events, then I would use the 73' Winchester.
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful rifle and functions well within its design. Hope this helps if anyone is considering the purchase of a Colt 1883 Burgess rifle replica.