I would go with the sidekick, I purchased one about three weeks ago and have loved it. It shoots great and the thing about the breech plug being hard to remove must be due to a person not lubing it. Everything about mine has been great....as soon as I purchased it I was hitting 3-4 inch groups. The rifle is easy to clean, trigger is great, and weighted excellent. Also, it's made in the USA. The only thing left to do with mine is place some meat on the table...ML season is only 6 weeks away.