I shoot a LOT of steel challenge, I have seen a few 41's that didn't seem to work too well but those situations were most likely operator error and lack of maintenance. The very few 41's that I have had the privelage to shoot were all well cared for and ran very well.
I would expect a 41 to do quite well until you get to the point where the weight of the gun is affecting your transition speed.
Rimfire pistol irons and rimfire pistol open are by far the two most highly competitive divisions in Steel Challenge.
My preferred optic for my Steel Challenge open guns is Vortex Razor with 6 moa dot. A smaller dot for 'precision' won't typically be helpful and can lack sufficient brightness in certain situations. I don't know what, if any, trigger modifications are available for M41 but enhance that to your liking if you want to make a steel shooter out of it.
The key to success with any rimfire division in Steel Challenge is RELIABILITY. If you have a gun that doesn't light one off every other mag or so, or magazines that don't feed properly, that makes for some bad stage times when you have to deal with cycling the slide to clear a malfunction.
