Personally, I do not mind the extra length of the stainless steel barrel at all. I kind of like it actually. As for the sights, they are not fiber optic but they seem to work real good. Both my barrels are the 1" on the flat models since I got them for a .54 caliber. On some of the rifles you have to take a chunk of the thimble rib off to make it fit into the stock, or a chunk of the stock.