George,you may have a lever-gun that ain't exactly the one a lot of others would have chosen, but what you do have, and in spades at that, is the one thing that draws people to cowboy action shootin in the first place, namely an attitude that if it ain't right, I ain't gonna go out and hire a lawyer and sue somebody, but will roll up my sleeves and fix it myself. You'll eventually wear out that gun, and then you might or might not decide you'd rather have another brand, but whether you know it or not, you've already got the most important thing a cowboy can have; a can-do attitude and unwillingness to quit. And you don't sound like you're the worst gunsmith I've ever met neither.
Cowboy'in can use more like you.
See ya around,
Lonesome Roads