Welcome aboard Brian! Spend some time in the FAQs and Help sticky, there's a link on Long Range sights that has lots of links to other related threads that will answer a lot of your questions, the front sight issue is specifically addressed, most come with the .584" or .494" 17A front sight, the .494" is Ok, but the .584" is unacceptable for use with the WGRS sight, will work with the FP or FP-TK sight, the .404" is very desirable for anything over 200yd shooting, I have the FP-TK rear sight w/.404" front on my 45-120 BC, with the rear sight at the bottom, it hits 1½" high at 100yds shooting 405gr bullets at 1600fps, it doesn't take many clicks up to hit dead on at 200yds shooting 525gr bullets at 1700fps.
For velocity comparisons, depending on the powder, you can get 150-200fps out of the 32" barrel over a 22" barrel with 350gr bullets, my tests have been limited to H322 (2027fps vs 1850fps) and IMR4198(2082fps vs 1932fps) with the 350gr Hornady RN and 350gr Speer. I've compared the 300gr Nosler at 2425fps in the 22" barrel using H4198, same load in the 32" barrel gets 2450fps, so powder/bullet combos do make a difference.
Tim